I don't work for Comcast so I have nothing to do with monitoring the emails, but I have administered email servers and domains so just giving some insight. You can certainly keep forwarding them to abuse (make sure you follow the directions to forward it as an attachment so they have the full email headers). But don't expect a response. They use these submissions to update their filtering and algorithms. They obviously can't block all of outlook.com, so they have to look at the content of the messages to try and filter that way. But the scammers know this and change the content regularly to circumvent that type of filtering.
In most cases the mail isn't actually coming from outlook.com (Microsoft's) servers, they just use that as a spoofed sender email address. So comcast can also block the IP addresses that are sending this spam (typically a VPN), but if you read other threads in here, you'll see that often results in them blocking legitimate user emails and the IP block has to be removed. Sometimes there is something in the email header they can use to filter on (that's why you forward as an attachment) but again, the scammers know this and change it up.
One could argue that they should be able to come up with better algorithms, and that is somewhat true, it takes a lot of work and they have to be careful not to be too broad and start blocking legitimate emails. It is a fine line to walk, but there is definitely room for improvement (for all the major email providers and corporations, not just Comcast).
For a while I got them frequently, then it died off. I think the scammers mostly try a set of addresses a certain number of times then move on to another set. But there are many scammers working off the same list of emails so you can get quite a few before it thins out. Even if you move to a new email address or provider, at some point they'll probably get ahold of that address through some new data breach.
One thing that I and many others do is have one email that is used mostly for friends and family and trusted stuff, then another used for purchasing, registering with various companies/sites/etc. Actually I even go a step further and have several - one personal, one for buying from trusted sites like amazon, one for buying from sites I don't know as well, one for e-bills from internet/utility companies, etc. That second (or 3rd, or 4th) one is the one most likely to get a lot of spam/scam/phishing stuff. This won't stop the emails, but at least they'll get delivered to that second account and not clutter up your more important emails. That also gives you the option of deleting that account if it gets really bad and creating a new one without having to tell your friends and family to use a new email (though you still have to update it with sites you used the second one on).
Unfortunately this sort of thing is just becoming the norm now (or really it has been for a couple of years). You could change your email every year or two, or just get used to deleting these things as they come in. I (and most) have opted for the latter since changing your email address is such a pain.
@shadlet wrote:
I am glad (in a sad kind of way) that I am not the only target of these cretins. yarntrails, your handle says that you are a "contributor."
"Nothing to do with comcast" - "impossible to block them." Is that your take as well on Phishing email reports where I've been directed to send the Source to Abuse@Comcast.net? Then why was I asked by Comcast to do this?
Yes, they are changing the fake sender name each time but they are always coming from outlook.com. What is bothering me now is the volume: They are showing up just about every other day now. Do I need to change my email address to stop this? Marking them as Spam is not working.
Again, you are doing a great job monitoring this forum. How about monitoring these scammers, all using outlook.com. I think Comcast has a responsibility in investigating/tracing/blocking this, since it is their platform the scammers are using. They certainly can afford to hire someone to track these perverts.
