Fake Email Senders

I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the creative names that people - okay, political campaigns and companies wanting to sell me something - put in their email sender fields.

How about this?

We know perfectly well that Nancy Pelosi didn’t send this email (although I’d love to talk with her since she’s one of my heros). Notice the extra touch, adding re:: in the subject line as if I’d emailed her. (I’m familiar with this trick by now, of course.)

Today I noticed a variation on this trick:

Notice how the name looks as if it’s a reply to a message from me to Josh. They’ve put a comma in the sender name, and everything. Nothing particularly new there.

But the little touch that I especially like is that they’ve sent the message twice!, tricking Gmail to put that little 2 in back of the sender field!

Gotta admit I fell for this trick.

I’m still holding out for a chance to talk to Josh again in person. He’ll make a great governor if my fellow North Carolinians show any sense.