Vastly OT - names in SPAM

[David.WE.Roberts]

I get my usual quota of SPAM which gets past the ISP filter and generally it is generic or in Chinese.

However I do regularly get SPAM with the name "Mrs Elaine Martin" in the subject line.

Now I do have one address which I have had since the first beta trial of BT Internet which must be on every spammers list in the world, especially as some bright spark published the entire email directory on white pages during the trial.

The address is also (because the name relates to Black Adder) used from time to time as a test address by developers who think "That's a cool name for a spoof email address" without considering that someone might have thought it was a cool name (sad bunny) for a real email address.

Also seems to be used by people who have to supply an email address to subscribe to a site from time to time (gawd knows why).

But I digress.

Just wondering if there is a real or virtual Mrs Elaine Martin out there who made use of my email address, or if this is a generic name used by spammers.

Cheers

Dave R

[polygonum]

Died in 1959...

[Bert Coules]

Try a Google search for the name: there are over 200 Elaine Martins in the UK alone, including at least one prominent scientist with an OBE.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Strangely, I have already done that - but with no indication that there is anyone complaining about the use of the name in SPAM.

Hence the question.

I was just wondering if one of the many Elaine Martins had used my email address to subscribe to some spammer's offer site, or if it was one of the default names used in global SPAM.

The test being if several other people (without very obvious email names) were also seeing the name in their incoming SPAM.

Cheers

Dave R

[Bert Coules]

Dave, apologies for my over-hasty reading of your original post: I didn't mean to suggest that you'd neglected something as basic as a Google search.

Elaine Martin does seem unlikely as a randomly-chosen spamming name, but then this is an unlikely world.

[Mark]

FWIW I don't recall receiving spam addressed to Elaine Martins. Most spam does not have any salutation, IIRC. Other options are "Dear Friend" and "Hi There".

[Tim Streater]

Did you actually mean the From: line, rather than the Subject: line?

Not that it matters, you can put what you like in both. So the question of "which is the real Elaine Martin" is irrelevant, like as not the name is auto-generated.

[David.WE.Roberts]

In the subject line - and I am assuming that if it was auto generated then I would be seeing random names.

Instead I am seeing the same name in the subject line from apparently different originators.

Anyway, nobody so far has said "Same thing is happening to me" so I am assuming that someone used my email address in conjunction with the name Elaine Martin somewhere where it could be harvested and re-used ad infinitum.

Cheers

Dave R