Who’s messing with my junk?
 

I don’t think I’m unique in being plagued by unwanted SPAM/phishing/419 scam/etc. and in recent years my email provider has been reasonably good at automatically moving them to a Junk Mail folder which I regularly check for overzealous filtering. However for about two weeks I got nothing in there: - no urgent PayPal security update; no request to confirm my bank password; no Nigerian princess wanted to send me $$$; nada. I was hopeful that Interpol had rounded up all the spambots and their owners, locked them up and thrown away the key. Sadly they’ve just started again and I’m back to my usual 20 or so per day.

So what changed? Was someone stealing my Junk Mail? Did I miss a strike of the global SPAMmers union? Coincidence? (I don’t believe in coincidences). Any ideas?

Randomness comes in lumps . . . sometimes.

‘Lumps’ or perhaps a step change.
A marked change in the number of ‘spam’ messages (iPad, iOS 14.4), some getting though the gmail filter.
An evolving spam technique, or because of a sandboxed 'BlastDoor'.

https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/32/48#subj2
‘Google uncovers new iOS security feature’

P.S. the ‘new’ recent spam messages have a similar format:-
Limited address list, 3 - 4, neither origin or cc addresses known to me,
a pdf attachment (content unknown, never opened)

They’ve come back with a vengeance now with about 30 a day. I’d love to know what was going right for my fortnight of respite. Hanging is too good for these people/bots.

Not really an answer to your question, but it is related.... a few years back I registered an account on Spamcop.net. It provides the option of forwarding the raw contents of the spam message to them and they filter out the relevant reporting addresses and allow you to complain to the mail provider and ISP for any websites linked in the message. I don't have a clue whether it has any effect, but there is something satisfying about being able to file a boilerplate complaint with a couple of clicks.

My spam has been quieter recently. No idea why.
No doubt it will come back in a rush............