Naughty Spammers!

Now, if you've read 0ddness for any length of time, you will know I DO enjoy me some spammer-action... Be it cracking up at the attempts to steal my banking details, to hijack my computer, or by replying to them and leading them on a merry dance into my sick and twisted brain...

Today, however, I received an email that I was 99% sure was definitely spam. However, that 1% niggling away at me actually gave me a reason to pause and to check the details.

For starters, it arrived in my email inbox - usually Gmail catches the nasties, and flushes them away. Secondly, I couldn't see the reason for the mail... More often than not, it's asking for bank details, for PayPal logins, WoW accounts, Windows Key - I really do get the lot. THIS mail, however, had nothing in it to warrant the spammage.

And, lastly, it named Jaysen in it, albeit with the boring spelling of Jason. Which LOTS of people - family included - still can't understand after 14 years.

Lastly, it claimed to be from one of his teachers at school.

Here is the email in its entirety:

Paula Uland puland@farmersvilleisd.net
17 Jan
to me

Just keeping you posted on Jason's behavior.

Since we have come back from Christmas, Jason is having a very difficult time in class. He is talking out, visiting and eye contacting other students around him during directed teaching time and is very off task.

We worry about him not being focused and the effect on his grades.

We appreciate you working with Jason at home.

Paula Uland
Science

Now, I know to read it, there are so many grammatical errors in it, it's not even funny. BUT I've had letters from school with worse language-usage than this. Also, it's not from the schools domain, but then, if the teacher is at home doing grading or whatever, and uses their own email, again, fair enough. The fact it says he's being a shit in class struck me as odd, as Jaysen does well in science - it's the fact the email suggests I've been in contact with this person before now about it, hence the "keeping me posted" part.

Yes, it reads like spam. BUT, Gmail didn't bin it, there's no links or anything to try stealing my data, and it names Jaysen. Spam emails are usually directed to "Dear Dan English" or "Hey Mr/Mrs 0ddness Bl0g" or similar. Quite how they have tied "Jason" to this email address is very strange, especially when you consider - if it was a clever algorithm or something to link "Names" with "Email Addresses" then it would be the correct spelling of Jaysen. How they have tied Jason to my Dan English address is beyond me, especially as I don't use it.

So, to be safe, I called the school. That little 1% niggling away at me won over, and I had to check. The receptionist had to check with personnel to make sure there was no Miss/Mrs/Ms Uland working for the school, but they have no record of her at all, so now my mind is mostly at rest.

I'm considering passing it on to my ISP, see if they can investigate maybe, but I am also going to reply and assuming they have struck all the right chords, see what happens... "Yes, thank you for letting me know about Jason, I am glad you let me know, I will punish him accordingly, is there anything else I can do, etc etc" just to see what happens.

Oh - the final "That's Weird" part of all this - it ISN'T my 0ddness email address - it's my other one, my Dan English one. Which I don't use to sign up to stuff or anything...

All very strange, but I will keep ya'll posted!