Spam Gallery–Traffic Violation

The Spam Gallery is a series of posts that give examples of spam messages, explaining telltales signs of how they are spam.

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I received a series of these emails, as usual with slightly different wording.  The email subject, street name and date varied between the messages.

This has the usual signs of spam: no personal information provided, somewhat unusual language  (“sanction and fine”, “camera shot”), sender email address is not from a domain that suggests an official law enforcement company, and a single available action – opening the attachment.

Some things you would need to ask about the email:

  • How did the “violation center” get my email from my license plate?
  • How do you pay the fine when there is no payment address
  • And most importantly, why is the attachment named “cumshot”?

Maybe the email will catch some people out of curiosity.  Even if you know it’s fake or you know it’s not you, you’re still curious as to what the attachment is.  There’s nothing to be gained by opening any attachment from anyone you don’t know.  If someone walked up to you on the street, handed you a USB drive and told you to run whatever program is on that drive, would it be any more logical than opening an attachment from a stranger?