Strange email Messages

[biglar]

Strange email messages. I've been receiving these strange email messages in my junk box on my iphone 6s. The sender is usually someone I know who I have recently sent or recieved but the senders names are usually changed by about 3 to 6 letters. The message wants me to open a file that's attached, WHICH I NEVER DO! All these type of messages come via my @shaw.ca email. They also only appear only on my iPhone 6s in the junk folder, never on my desktop windows email.

Now is this a shaw email problem, apple iPhone problem, or telus which is my cellular provider? Is there anything I can do about it?

[mrme]

I've started receiving these as well through my @shaw email address that I have been using for many, many years.  Nothing has changed on my end, so I was very surprised when these started up a few months ago.  Glad to hear that I'm not the only one with this problem.

[#3]

I and several colleagues have also been having this problem for some time. The e-mails initially look like from someone in my e-mail phone book but a letter or two in the person's name is changed. I have traced back the IP addresses in the headers and these have all been spoofed apparently using a VPN. The messages all contain a link to some sort of offer, which I avoid.

Is Shaw on this? Has anyone notified them?

[#4]

I am having the same problem.  Dozens of emails a week from names that appear very similar to actual contacts but with a few letters different.  None get filtered into junk and if I try to block them on my iPhone, there isn't that option for some reason?  I don't ever open them on my PC.  How can I block these and does it mean my account has been somehow compromised? (I tried to attach images of some of these emails to help make the problem clearer but the moderator rejected my post even though none of the content was inappropriate, so unfortunately there is no way to clarify)

[carsrsm88]

I to have recently started receiving emails similar to the ones mentioned above. The Subject line usually starts with 2 or 3 numbers and seems to come from someone in my address book with one or two characters changed. My wife has also started receiving the same emails. Has Shaw looked into this?

[gerryfx]

Same thing here, wondering if Shaw email servers have been hacked - not receiving these on other email accounts I have - only shaw. Sender names were similar to contact names but now are random names I don't recognize. 

[someday]

This situation is getting worse by the hour! Only my Shaw mail has this spam problem. It is tiring going into my web mail and reporting spam to Shaw. I have sent hundreds in the last two weeks. Shaw where are you??????????

[kaywinnit]

Same for both my husband and me.  Same time frame, same types of messages, same business of the "from" field being someone from my contacts with name changed by a few letters.

[mdk]

@kaywinnit -- blame the spammers/scammers.

They have compromised the E-mail of a friend of yours, and "harvested" all their "contacts".

Your E-mail ID was one of those contacts.

So, you now get "spoofed" E-mail, citing your friend's ID (or a slight variation) in the "FROM:" field, and your ID in the "TO:"  field. Their point is to try to "social-engineer" you, to think that the message is really from your friend, to make it more likely that you will process the message.

You are wise to not open the E-mail, nor open any attachment, or to click any hyperlink in the body of the E-mail.

The "harvesting" could not have been prevented by Shaw.

Once "the horse is let out of the barn", it is too late to try to stop the spammers from sending more "junk" to your ID.