Anyone else received this?

[Hedwerx]

This Email Arrived this morning...

"Hi
I like your work and would like to host some of your skins on my site http://www..com[actual link doesn't seem to go anywhere other than a business site]
I am building a special section just for IL-2 skins and putting up as many original WWII photos and data that I can lay my hands on.
It is taken a lot of work and I?m still working on the overall design.
I wont be putting loads of adds on either.
If you don?t like what I?m doing I will remove the skins but I think you?re be, very happy with the end result.
I have been scanning photos from books and will match the skin with profiles from the numerous books I have.
Matthew"

Is this genuine? Or are the spammers getting really specific? find a little hard to believe as I've only ever released 3 skins and some markings.

[Serval]

Didn't receive it. but it sounds a bit strange to me especially since the link lead to a business site.

[adlabs6]

Confusing. Who ever this is recognizes what IL2 is, what skins are, and that an author might not want his skins hosted without permission (and his offer to remove them).

From his knowing this much about the workings, I'd say he's no generic spammer, as these types will not waste so much effort on so small a target as the skin community is. But on the other hand, since no identifiable names or links to useful sites are given, I would personally be skeptical.

BTW, I've received nothing of this sort either.

[WarWolfe]

I've never seen anything like it either

[Hedwerx]

Yeah, I left it alone at any rate.
It tried an automated message received when it arrived so it made me a little suspicious.
The only reason I could see for that, outside of an urgent business message, was as a "sonar" ping to see if the account was active.

Maybe i'm just being paranoid about it (but not about them, they know who they are..)

but if you like being safe add asisbiz.com to your blocked list.

Warwolfe, neither have I, someone liking my skins gave it away straight off.

[BLOWHARD]

Interesting. I don't think it's span either. The only way to find out is ask the guy some questions and see who he is. Maybe you can get his screen name and see where he's posted and who else knows him. You never know, it might be legitimate...but best to be cautious

[Serval]

His point is, that if he responds, he gives away his mail account is valid.
But he allready might have done so by visiting the site.

What also confuses me is that someone posts his skins on a site first and then asks permission.
But it is hard to check since the site doesn't seem valid so far.

[Hedwerx]

Serval: precisely, I cut and pasted the link to the browser so that shouldn't have given me away if it is dodgy, I'm going to wait and see if I get anything else from this guy before I act.

It could be a totally innocent guy or not, until there's a little more to sway me either way its cards close to chest. he knows enough about the community side of things, but then skins are skins no matter what the game is called, and most skinners would like to know where their hard work is being posted regardless of genre.

It just didn't seem to tie into me, I've only ever made one "historical" skinpack for the MXY7-11 and that was just based off photo's of museum pieces, hardly 100% accurate, and the others were generics... not at all like the many other skinners pumping out historical after historical skins.

[Serval]

Look in de text mode at the mail. Is the actual link the same as the one in the text? with HTML it is easy to show a link as mysite.com and actually link to yoursite.com
Maybe the actual link contains parameters which give away your ID or it contains a link to a folder on that server which leads to a personal homepage. In case A it is something suspicious, in case B the person involved made some mistake.

you can link to http:// www . xs4all . nl /~vdlogt while you show in the text http:// www . xs4all . nl
But as well can you add some strange number like http:// www . xs4all . nl /u=12345 where the u=12345 part could give the owner a clue who followed the link.

[EDIT] had to split up the URL since the site software translates the URLs to titles

[Hedwerx]

it was just text no hyperlink.

and yeah thats why http://www..com comes up as a site addy