PS.

I just did the same thing with the IP address from an email that came from the UK at the weekend.

Seems he's in London, City of London, Hampshire and Rochdale.

So, pray tell, how will that be useful in tying things up to a "disposable" email address since all that is happening is that the spammers can say is that the email originated in a certain country?

Pray tell? What are you a vicar?

You're talking about geolocation using IP addresses - I'm not. I was answering a specific point about responding to spam in forms and that dynamic IP addresses notwithstanding, responding is a poor idea since it confirms that a computer within that pool of addresses is live and responding and therefore ratchets up the likelihood of further spam to that ISP and thus someone not as worldly wise & tech savvy as the august users of this place getting caught out.

If you want to have fun in this life, there are better, less damaging ways to go about it, which is advice I would offer anyone.

Parapunter,

Rubbish.

Read up on dictionary attacks.

That's the sort of technique used to "get" the majority of email addresses to send to. The rest comes up from email addresses harvested by whatever means.

Sending 1 email or 6,000,000,000 emails costs the disgusting people exactly the same thing.....i.e. pretty much nothing, especially if using botnets..... so what makes you think they're bothering to go through the sort of commercial database cleansing processes that a normal company would ? Remember, for example, that they are using one-off addresses to send, so whether or not they get a deluge of bouncebacks is irrelevant.

Oh, and another thing.

The only people who will get remotely near to properly tracing an IP are law enforcement with a court order (and even then it's not guaranteed to get them anywhere fast, especially in the world of botnets).

Public databases are notoriously hit and miss in terms of accuracy. Also, in relation to ISPs with private customers, you'll frequently find public data is obfuscated (cf. Data Protection legislation) and the locations shown are probably just some ISP offices.

Parapunter : Do you want the five minute argument or the ten minute argument? You seem to be arguing simply for the sake of doing so and attempting to put other people down. Your views on this such as "If you want to have fun in this life, there are better, less damaging ways to go about it, which is advice I would offer anyone." may, or may not, be valid, but don't be so self-righteous.

In the face of the evidence of others, you do seem to be in a minority, which might indicate that you are wrong. If you want to carry on digging, that's fine, but I at least have lost any respect I may previously have had for your views.

Yep, I know that & believe I stated clearly I wasn't discussing geolocation. Capetonian, to imply that ever mattered to me is a long walk off a short pier, respect is a personalised notion & you just fell into the same trap as Pop.

Whilst I'm happy to be corrected by the IP cops, I'm still waiting for anyone to tell me interacting with spammers is a a good idea.

Nope. Thank you all & good night.:)

Rubbish. With the type of phishing expedition highlighted in this thread there is no "pool" of IP addresses, no "pool" of ISP's, no "attack" on ISP's and no "attack" per country. I get the same Barclay's, HSBC, etc phishing mails despite not being in the country where these banks are, according to the emails I see they are generally sites claiming to be in the UK, and I also get some for US banks too. Paypal UK is also another favourite. Explain how that is somehow "tied" to an ISP, especially through a web-based email like Hotmail, or through an email address that has ".be" at the end. Answer, it ISN'T, it's a random phish based on the very method described by mixture. It has bugger all to do with your ISP. Also, since you are using a "form" the IP address is irrelevant as they have no idea whether you are at home, work, hotel, internet cafe, mobile, etc when you send in the form.

Sorry, Para, but you have no idea regarding these kinds of attacks. Sure, some spam mails do mean to find a "live" email so they can send more spam, others use the email to send a nasty to compromise the receiver's computer. But these phishing scams for banks/paypal have nothing to do with that, they are only interested in the gullible actually following the instructions and filling in the form so these details can be used for nefarious purposes. And by buggering the scammers around by sending fake info, it means they are spending time on nothing which means there is a smaller chance of some imbecile being fleeced at that moment and/or a higher chance of a bank taking action to prevent an idiot being fleeced since they'll take notice of people trying to access a non-existent account with fake details.


By the way, I'm still waiting to for you to enlighten us with the benefits a scammer will have by tracing the IP address from an email. As I say, is the sender at work, at home, in an internet cafe, at a friend's house, in jail, on vacation, using free wifi whilst sitting in a café....... Explain the use, please, if you can.....

It's a shame mixture said the bit about the IP address locations being some ISP office somewhere and not the actual location of the person sending the email, not Capetonian. You were almost doing well up to that point.

And we all know what your "notion" of "respect" is from

In other words, you have no concept of "respect".



As you say, "Good Night". Now, make sure you turn your computer off to save energy and, just to make sure no scammer can EVER trap you, maybe it would be better if you left it like that.

Parapunter, maybe if you spent some time trying to understand others' points of view, and disagreeing with a bit more respect, rather than setting 'traps', you might be a more welcome participant in the discussion. As it is, I feel you are about as welcome as pork ribs at a mosque!

Discussion is not about 'setting traps'.

I don't think so Helsbrink. As I say, I'm happy to be corrected, but the pejorative tone you exhibit is unedifying at the very least - I have a decent memory so I know where you're coming from.

Capetonian, you might point that out to your fellow correspondents who like to start their posts with the word 'Rubbish'! Respect is a two way street as you should know from the times I have picked up on your unpleasant prose elsewhere on this site.:=

Parapunter, I think you must be having a bad day. Let's leave it there.

I hope I don't soon bump into you at my favourite watering hole in Lewes, the John Harvey Tavern, no doubt you'll have something derogatory to say about that. And don't answer any emails from strange men!

No irony. That was really good stuff. Well done everyone. I'll bet Pprune pop was not expecting that.

You got that right MC! ;)

It's a bit like being the drunk in the bar in the Western film, who falls asleep whilst every one else in the bar has a grand scale shoot-out.
When you wake up you hope they've all gone away.