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This Phishing email... What is the IP?
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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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I often assume this kind of thing is part of an effort to filter for idiots
If you know that's an invalid IP address, you're probably less likely to fall for the scam after the scammer has put the setup work in. So if they filter you out before a scammer has to spend any actual effort on you, that means more time they can spend scamming people who might be more likely to fall for it
That's why these things often have egregious spelling errors and other seemingly obvious red flags
Just because I know what a valid IP is doesn't mean I'm not an idiot 😎
Let's see you write a regex for one, then we'll decide.
Why would anyone want to do that when there are dozens on stackoverflow?
That's not the probability they are looking for.
I do believe that is confirmed canon.
I remember reading about this many years ago as an explanation for why there were so many banner ads that looked like they were created in MS paint.
It's possible in general, but I don't think that's what's going on specifically here; not many people read IP addresses in such detail to notice such things at first glance.
It’s exactly what is happening, they’re filtering out people who know what an IP address is and can contain so that they get fewer time wasters.
The point schnurrito was making is that even if you know what an IP address is and what are valid or invalid IP addresses, a lot of people won't read the IP address. They'll just see numbers and skim over them. Even if you're keeping eyes peeled for scams, most people don't have their IP address memorised off the top of their heads so they wouldn't be looking to check if the IP address looks right or not.
And the point I’m making is that they’re doing it to filter out people who know and pay attention. Real simple stuff.
Then I don't think that would be the most effective way because most people aren't paying that much attention, independently of knowledge. What would tip me off to it being a scam would be other parts of the email.
You, maybe, someone else, maybe not.
They put in a lot of flags like that, of varying obviousness, to filter out as many people as possible who would be savvy enough to not fall for the scam overall. It’s not just one clue, it never is.
Movies and TV shows actually do it this way to prevent actual machines getting group hugged.
Like in that one X-Files episode, where the Lone Gunmen hack into an invalid IP.
It's also why there's usually bad spelling or grammar in those e-mails as well
I never thought of it like that before. I wonder how common this intent actually is...