Different origin of spam

[Morg2]

I got a spam that was trying to look like it was from someone I know.  The "From" line on the spam showed his name, but the "Reply To" was a gmail address that had nothing to do with him.  If I click "reply", the autofill address in the "to" line is that gmail email.

I reported the spam and Spamcop came back saying that the reports go to "abuse@spdnetwork.net" and "support@spdnetwork.net".   (Not the first time I've encountered crap from spdnetwork.net, whoever they are).  Tracking URL deleted

I'm just wondering why Spamcop didn't suggest sending the report to gmail?  If the abuser is using gmail to phish, shouldn't they be notified too, so they can use their resources to hunt the guy (or at least shut down his account)?  Maybe I don't understand, but that's why I'm asking the smarter people here!  Thanks.

[Lking]

Because the "From" and "Reply To" elements are so easily forged that there is no way to know if they are being used by the spammer or just an address used to get past spam filters, as is the case of using your friends email address in the FROM.

Have you let your friend know that his email service has been hacked and he needs to let his ISP know and should change ALL related pass words (and any password on any other accounts that use the same password).

 

 

[Morg2]

Thanks Lking, I have indeed pointed the spam out to my friend, and sent him the link to Spamcop, too!  (actually, his email address was not in the FROM -- it was a fake address that contained his name but wasn't any actual address of his.  Same effect, though).

So tell me:  on my report, at the bottom where it showed "send report to" (and that spdnetwork stuff), could I / should I have manually added some sort of abuse@gmail address to send the report to, also? 

I do understand that the spamcop system might be programmed to generally ignore the easily forged stuff, but since this one appeared to actually be trying to get my reply sent to it, could I have helped by reporting him/her myself?  Is that something you would do?