Where did that Email come from? Track the IP Address !

These are the days of Phishers and Spammers.  How many of those emails have you received from folks wanting to "do business with you"?  All you need to do is provide them with your Bank Account #, PIN, Middle Initial, etc.

Why just last week;  - I won 2 Million British Pounds in some lottery....  - Had not 1 but 3 Notices from the IRS, that I have overpaid (yeah right) and they wanted to "Rush" me my refund! ....    - I even had the Personal Assistant of Aristide, the former President of Haiti.  He needed me to help the former President with transferring some "funds".

Lucky me!  Everyone wants my help!

Then we have those folks who answer our Craigs List Ads.  Do you know how many Drs want to rent or buy my places in DC?  It is incredible.  All they want to do is wire some money to me!

BUT TODAY..... a New one.....   LOOK - It's a contact Email from Active Rain !!!

However... an alarm sounded in my head.  Some one wants to discuss using my services  ASAP.  I needed to contact them via their email address.

Hmmm....

But wait - all E Mails from Active Rain show the IP Address at the bottom....

What is an IP Address?  Well the long version is here.  The short version... it tracks where the computer is that sent the email.

There is a great tool I found (I am sure there are others - but here is one I use):     IP Tracker

When I keyed in the IP Address provided by Active Rain Guess What?  It came from:

ISP	AVISONET, ISP Cote d'Ivoire
Country	Cote d'Ivoire

Well, I will have to pass on helping out another person from the Ivory Coast.  I am sure I have won another lottery!

IF you are not sure where something is coming from.... Track the IP address.... It may save you some future Spam or a headache!

   

Call James for all your Real Estate needs and questions; servicing Dupont Circle and the entire Washington DC  Metro area.

Comments

[Bob Stewart]

That's one of the reason's we added that little nugget of knowledge to the ActiveRain contact form. You can forward those to support@activerain.com and we can block the IP address.

(The problem is that most of these spammers are at internet cafe's that have randomly assigning IP's. So it's tough to 'really' block them.