Weird Spam Asks “How Much Does Downloading Music Cost?”

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A rash of seemingly pointless spam (no links, no payload, no effort to get private information) is making the rounds, each one inquiring about the cost to get some form of music download, and each coming from a fake Gmail address, such as d12treskey@gmail.com, petersons.production@gmail.com, winstonfinancial@gmail.com and petrov.gazprom@gmail.com.

The Subjects are all very similar. “How much does it cost to get music on my phone?” asks one. “How much does a music video cost on itunes?” asks another. “How much does downloading music cost?” queries a third.

The entire spam message is never more than a few lines long, and each is also a variation on the same theme, such as:

How much does it cost to get music on my phone?
What are the pros and cons I should be looking out for?
Please point me in the right direction. I really appreciate your help. Thankyou,
Joan

And:

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How much does downloading music cost?
Would you consider giving me a hand or at least some advice based on your experience? Any help appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Susan

So what is this spam all about? Nobody seems to know. It’s about as pointless as spam can be. So far.

One other interesting thing is that, in a clear attempt to bolster the Gmail charade, each one actually comes through a domain called “gmail-mx2.com”. The only problem is that gmail-mx2.com was only registered last month, and seems to be somewhere in Chicago – it’s clearly not a Gmail property.

In any event, if you get this spam, don’t reply; just delete it.

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2 thoughts on “Weird Spam Asks “How Much Does Downloading Music Cost?”

  1. I too have received these emails. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to respond to the first one I got because it seemed to come from a real reader in need of advice. Then I started receiving more similar emails, and I realized I had been spammed.

    Then I did a Google search using the words of my response to that first email, and discovered that it had been published on a website. The site has Adsense ads on it. It’s a spoof website that has been made to look like Yahoo Answers.

    If any of you have responded to any of these emails, search Google using the words of your reply. If you find that it’s been published on a website, complain to Google and/or Adsense!! Email content is copyrighted! Maybe together we can get this site taken down or at least banned from Adsense.

  2. Perhaps they had an invisible email tracker embedded which lets them know whether an email they sent was opened. Seems a good way for a spammer to collect email addresses from people whom actually open spam.

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