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Boosted by kornel ("Kornel"):
david_chisnall@infosec.exchange ("David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)") wrote:
Oh, this is a fun category of spam I haven't seen before:
A load of big events sell their attendees list (and a bunch of the people who buy it are dodgy folks that sell it later). Some event-organising entitires will automatically pre-register you for related events so that their registered attendee lists look bigger. So, what I think has happened is:
- Some event I went to caused me to be registered for some other event.
- My name was on an attendee list.
- My name, email address, and the 'fact' that I attended were bundled together in something sold to spammers.
So now the spam I get is personalised as 'We met at {event I didn't go to or even notice existed} and I enjoyed talking to you about {generic thing related to the topic of the event}'.
And that's probably a good way of getting a load of people to think that it's a real contact. I'd have believed it, if I'd actually been to the event, because I talk to hundreds of people at these events and it's entirely plausible that I had a long conversation with someone but can't remember their name.