SPAM Surge

[#1]

Yesterday (Tue-28-Oct-2008) I suffered a surge of SPAM messages.
795 got through to my Inbox (compared to ave 0.1 per day over last 4 weeks), plus
949 got into my SPAM folder on SquirrelMail (compared to ave 27.4 per day over last 4 weeks).
Most of the excess messages are in the form of "Failure to deliver" or "Out of Office" messages, with a high percentage of Russian and French addresses involved as the apparent people I had been trying to send email to.  Most of these excess messages are also to my coventry-walks.org.uk domain, with hardly any to my other two domains.  Most were received between 08:00 and 09:00, but with a gradually reducing number continuing all day and into this morning (9 in my Inbox and 10 in my SPAM folder so far today).
A similar type of surge occurred on 29-Sep, but then only 20 messages got through to my inbox plus 117 to my SPAM folder.  The following day or two had a few repeats, but with only 2 more getting to my Inbox.
Anyone else had similar surges?
Any explanations?
Any advice?
PS - Started new topic because I could not find an active topic on this subject.  Maybe that's a good sign that Postini/PlusNet have been doing well in recent months.  I thought so  - thanks for all who helped.

[#2]

it a problem of faked sender address, nothing I am afraid you can do about it, normally only lasts a day - Were they marked as spam, they are not normally

[#3]

Of yesterdays messages, 949 were marked as spam, 795 were not.  A superficial analysis fails to find much difference between those marked as SPAM and those not marked (other than of course the SPAM score!).  All the messages are innocuous, looking like genuine messages from some mail system - except of course they refer to a message that I know I never sent.   I have kept all, and might download all those marked SPAM and attempt better analysis later.

cp:quote

[#4]

This effect is known as Backscatter
It basically means that a spammer decided to use your address as the "return" address.  Badly configured mail servers then added to the effect by bouncing the mail back to you.
Backscatter is definately spam, of a sort.  However, because it looks exactly like legitimate bounce emails (well, it is!), then spam-identification software is a bit hit-and-miss on whether it will identify it.
It will die down within 24-48 hours.
B.

[#5]

Quote from: Barry

This effect is known as Backscatter ..... It will die down within 24-48 hours.

Thanks Barry - I now know I'm suffering from Backscatter, not just ordinary SPAM!
Unfortunately it lasts longer than 48 hours.  I'm still getting replies from services which first answered (e.g.) "Could not deliver, but will keep trying for 4 days".  All those including a date of original message in the repeat attempts confirm root cause started on the 28-Oct, so hopefully this surge will end tomorrow.
What does the sender get out of this?  Only I know about the duff addresses, or the people working in Paris who are out of the office till next week, or etc.  Or do they get a copy as well?  Or are there some hidden links to nasty sites in some of the messages?
All I can do is hope I don't get repeat surges every two weeks, with each surge generating 40 times more messages than the previous one.  If this happened, I would soon be unable to find my real mail in the noise, my download link would be overloaded, and I'd only be able to read my mail at off peak times when I could leave the PC downloading for hours before I started searching for a useful message.  I hope someone can tell me such predictions are impossible?  And if this is happening to other people, the network for everyone will soon get overloaded.

[#6]

You never know with back scatter,  you might never get it again, you might get it in two weeks.
I thought the undelivered message give what was in the original.  That should give you a clue that it is indeed a nasty.
attached is one I recieved, note the original is at the top as Google Walks
Out of interest it should have been head of Enterprise and Culture at Braintree Council. but I mistyped it - so dont bother telling me its not hidden
To look at an e-mail without opening it, Right click on it in index, select properties, then message source.  Never open suspect mail

[#7]

Just to add to this spam surge experiences......I have for a week now been receiving much more spam than previously.
This occurs sometimes but it has only lasted a couple of days.
Now I am continuing to get it every day....but what really p****** me off is the fact that some are from my own email address.

[#8]

my genuine spam for October was a lot higher than in the preceding two months, about three times more.
When you said from your own e-mail address, what exactly did you mean?  dont confuse it with back scatter
I have a PN supplied address of Username.me.uk, If I send that to username.free-online.uk, that occasionally gets marked as spam, Postini has not been set up to recognise that as PN to PN

[#9]

I thought it was against Forum rules to quote the post immediately before your reply.  Personally I don't agree with it but it is in the rules and, as such, both quotes in this thread should have been removed.
Isn't it time this rule was reviewed as I don't find it annoying at all?

[#10]

The rule actually says:
Only quote the full content of a post if :-
a) it is NOT the post immediately before your reply

[#11]

4Candles:
The first quote was the full content of the previous post.   

[#12]

@coastergrotto  True, but the second one wasn't.
I do agree with your views on the rule.

[#13]

@4Candles:
Thanks for your comment, so how does one put a suggestion forward to have the rules amended.?

[#14]

Quote from: coastergrotto

so how does one put a suggestion forward to have the rules amended.?

http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,48.0.html

[#15]

@mal0z :
Thanks for that.  Have done as you suggested.