# Curious new rank



## tonytopshed (Jul 10, 2021)

I've just received a curious email from Adobe that mystifies me - perhaps someone can explain!

Apparently I've to be congratulated on achieving a 'new rank' - whatever that means - as a 'Spectator'!!!
And I now am (post)titled as Antony5E83. No doubt some significance in these  numbers? Lottery winners maybe?
My efforts are 'appreciated', in which case I'll continue to do nothing!

What does it all mean? It's not scam as it links to Adobe's webpages.
Thanks -- Antony 5E83 5E84 5E85 and counting----


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## PhilBurton (Jul 10, 2021)

Tony, if it quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, it is most likely a duck.  It is entirely possible that hackers have planted malware on the Adobe website, or else corrupted a web page with own code.  That happens only all the time.

I just did a search on "Adobe Lightroom spectator" and came up with zero results.

Phil Burton


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## Replytoken (Jul 10, 2021)

tonytopshed said:


> I've just received a curious email from Adobe that mystifies me - perhaps someone can explain!
> 
> Apparently I've to be congratulated on achieving a 'new rank' - whatever that means - as a 'Spectator'!!!
> And I now am (post)titled as Antony5E83. No doubt some significance in these  numbers? Lottery winners maybe?
> ...


How did you determine that it links to Adobe's web pages?

--Ken


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## tonytopshed (Jul 10, 2021)

I found some threads on  Adobe forums throwing scorn on this. It is a genuine email for some mad scheme, perhaps dreamt up by bright young yuppies with degrees in flower-arranging!


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## Rob_Cullen (Jul 10, 2021)

The Adobe Community Forums keep track of the number of forum posts (questions or answers) and as you increase your posts you will be shown with 'titles' like-
"New Here",  "Spectator",  "Engaged", "MVP Most Valued Participent", etc.
"ACPs" are very active volunteers recognized by Adobe for their Forum help. And "Staff" will identify Adobe Staff members.
 If the email is from an _@Adobe.com_ address then it would be legitimate.


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jul 11, 2021)

I-See-Light said:


> If the email is from an _@Adobe.com_ address then it would be legitimate.



Extremely bad advice, sorry to be blunt, but it is dangerous advice. 

Bear in mind that email from addresses are surprisingly easy to fake, analysis of headers and searching email audit trails can sometimes validate them, but you should never assume that an email from address is legitimate.

I do not suggest that it is NOT legit in this case, only that you should not assume it based on the from address.


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## tspear (Jul 11, 2021)

@Ferguson

Beat me to it.


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## Rob_Cullen (Jul 11, 2021)

OK, YES! Bad advice and Dangerous advice!
I have learnt my lesson.!
Looking back through my (unread/ignored) emails, I too have received one similar email, and now when I read it proves to be spoofed. This one email uses my Lightroom-Queen Forum ID name, but claims to come from adobe.com forums where I use another ID name entirely.


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## PhilBurton (Jul 12, 2021)

tonytopshed said:


> I found some threads on  Adobe forums throwing scorn on this. It is a genuine email for some mad scheme, perhaps dreamt up by bright young yuppies with degrees in flower-arranging!


I *seriously  *doubt that this is genuine, considering just how easily it is to forge email headers.  I can't think of any reason for Adobe to create some new program where you need an additional userID.  

Bear in mind that the Adobe forum is open to the public, so really smart hackers could have posted these messages.

One more point.  It is possible that most of the Adobe pages you viewed were genuine, while at the same time the "Spectator" page is bogus.  There is a hacker technique called "DNS poisoning" that could be employed.

Sad to say, we, the "good people" are losing the war to the hackers, the "bad" people, losing very badly.  It doesn't help that some of the bad guys are sponsored by nation-states like North Korea, China, Russia and Iran.  

The Internet (was the "ARPANet") was designed 40+ years ago for survival after a nuclear attack.  Security was simply not an issue.  And today, and into the foreseeable future, we are living with those (unwise) design choices.

Phil Burton


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## tspear (Jul 12, 2021)

PhilBurton said:


> The Internet (was the "ARPANet") was designed 40+ years ago for survival after a nuclear attack.  Security was simply not an issue.  And today, and into the foreseeable future, we are living with those (unwise) design choices.
> 
> Phil Burton



Convince people to move to IPV6, it solves a significant amount of the current network layer security issues, note: it does not address what sits on top. But it is a solid starting point.


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## PhilBurton (Jul 13, 2021)

tspear said:


> Convince people to move to IPV6, it solves a significant amount of the current network layer security issues, note: it does not address what sits on top. But it is a solid starting point.


Tim,

It's probably harder to get companies to move to IP v6 than it is to get anti-vaxxers to get a Covid shot.  If my ISP Comcast is any indication, it's not making much of an effort to get me to move to IP v6.  And, honestly, for me, with my simple LAN, that's OK.  But I can't move to IP V6 until all my WiFi device-makers move.

What sits on top, there is where most recent malware lives.  Different topic altogether.


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