mirek03 > 'Hi all, I have finally decided to ask.., I reckon at least 5-8 times a year i get requests, which are odd in their contents, wanting help..?? they want my e-mail address and beg for it. I give my G-mail address which i have because I get so many of these odd e-mails and never hear from the person/people again.'

I'm no expert but this sounds like an attempt to get for email for spam and other illegal purposes. When you reply, they know that the email address is valid and working and they can use it for whatever they want.


mirek03 > 'this is obviously a way to get into maybe not my system, maybe it is, maybe its innocent, maybe they want to get into the uni system with my uni address (which I would never give out).'

You know, I've never heard of hackers attacking a computer via email addresses. It's a lot easier for them just to ping for random addresses then port scan before attacking. Thats why its a good idea to disable ping replies on your internet interface, helps keep them from knowing you're out there.


mirek03 > 'what Im asking is.., am I the only one that gets these e-mails.., which would seem to me often to be the same person using a different alias...'

Check the email headers. They will show you what time the message was sent and from what server and IP address. If all the messages are sent around a particular time, through a limited range of servers with IP addresses that all belong on one company, then it is likely that it is the same person.


mirek03 > 'anyone else getting these e-mails from time to time??'

Sorry... no creepy emails in my inboxes.