I got a spam email from Riaa?

Question

Yesterday I got an spam email from RIAA that said dear brandacoriˇ@yahoo.com ' this is not my email , hereby we notify you that your IP address has been identified as distributing copyrighted content. Please see the attachment to this message for illicit Internet traffic details
Failure to respond to this message withing 14 days will result in copyright infringement accusation and standard legal procedures
and an address from Washington dc with phone / fax number below
What the heck is this? am I in trouble or something? I didn't open the attachment

Answer 1

I got the same thing, too. I didn't open the attachment but I did respond and got a Delivery Failure Notice. It's junk.

Answer 2

I got the same email the same day you did. I didn't see anything that had my name on it. I didn't see any website that was under my control or anything that I owned the copyright to that was mentioned. A lot of people post other people's music and video files to their own social networking pages without having the legal right to do so. This creates a copyright infringement issue. This malicious spammer has realized that and is trying to exploit the fear of being confronted over it by deceiving people with mal intent email. The worst possible thing you could have done would have been to open the attachment. BTW, standard procedure for copyright owners who have been infringed is to contact the host website where you have the file available, complain to them about it and ask them to remove it. Usually the hosting website will do that and then notify you themselves. Don't lose any sleep over this scam.

Answer 3

It's fake, it's not from RIAA. You're not in any trouble.



Nobody legit is going to notify you of anything with an email that includes an attachment. There is no reason to put something in an attachment that could just be included in the text of the email. The attachment is most likely malware.

Answer 4

I got the same email. Although I noticed that it was sent to me and 20 other email addresses. If it was real legal trouble they wouldn't send out a mass email to everyone at once. Therefore didn't open the attachment.

@ Psychic Computer Repair® PEBKAC? I always check my spam emails as every so often a legitimate email goes in there

Answer 5

You are not in trouble, this is a common fraud in the United States.



The court system requires plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit to notify a person they are persuing legal action against them and to send a written notice by mail or in person or by other delivery to you describing the accusation. Emails are not proper notification.



You could forward that email to the Federal Trade Commission for them to investigate, as whoever is behind this fraud is sending the same information to many other people trying to trick those people.

Answer 6

This type of message is a phishing scam, trying to scare you into opening the attachment and divulging your personal information or launching malware. The RIAA is not going to lookup up your IP address then e-mail you. Here are some helpful tips: http://antispam.yahoo.com/phishingtips

Answer 7

I got that email in my spam box, too. It was also forwarded to like 20 other people. If it was a real notice from the RIAA, then they would have sent it in the mail, along with a supoena, and not in a mass email.

Answer 8

Dude i think someone's pulling your leg



IF you're IP was found to be distributing copyrighten content you would legally have to be sent a letter warning as well as a supeana (<-- Not sure how to spell this word but i hope you get the point)

Answer 9

.. and stop trying to open the attachment. Never open an attachment on an unsolicited email.

Answer 10

Find out really email sender with help from free email trackers:

http://www.ip-address.org/tracker/trace-email.php

http://www.ipaddresslocation.org/email-tracking/email-header.php

http://www.find-ip-address.org/email-search/find-email.php



Simple copy/paste email header and see what they will show you about sender.

Answer 11

This is a challenging question, and one that made me curious for a long time.

Answer 12

That's why they call it spam. Why do you read things in your spam folder?

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