I had an e-mail this morning

FartingGnome

FartingGnome

Well-known member
Containing an exhortation to avail myself of the covid app, ostensibly from an NHS looking address. There was an html attachment which remains unopened. Cursory examination of the headers tells me that it comes from AMAZONSES.COM (excuse the capitals, spell checker insists it's amazon's.com). AMAZONSES.COM is Amazon's spam service by the look of it. Wondered if HMG were using Amazon's customer list to send spam. That is all.
 
Amazon Simple Email Service can be used by anyone to send emails. It's a service, and has nothing to do with Amazon's customer list.

"When you call Amazon SES from an application hosted in Amazon EC2, you can send 62,000 messages per month at no charge. This Free Usage Tier benefit does not expire."

It could be that spammers are using the service. It may even be genuine. Did it arrive in your spam folder?

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ses-email-flagged-as-spam/
 
"The email will come from ‘NHS Test and Trace COVID-19 App’":
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-19-app-emails-and-sms-messages

"Amazon Web Services (AWS) which hosts the central system (cloud server) that supports the app":
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...arly-adopter-trial-august-2020-privacy-notice

The final question is how they have your email address. I know that both the NHS and government have my email address. Personally, I'm happy for them to send me informative emails.
 
dan_ashcroft said:
Amazon Simple Email Service can be used by anyone to send emails. It's a service, and has nothing to do with Amazon's customer list.

"When you call Amazon SES from an application hosted in Amazon EC2, you can send 62,000 messages per month at no charge. This Free Usage Tier benefit does not expire."

It could be that spammers are using the service. It may even be genuine. Did it arrive in your spam folder?

The final question is how they have your email address. I know that both the NHS and government have my email address. Personally, I'm happy for them to send me informative emails.

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ses-email-flagged-as-spam/
Click to expand...

Ah, OK, ta for that - no, it was in the normal inbox. Won't matter anyway in a few weeks because my own e-mail is the old onyxnet.co.uk domain which is disappearing at the end of October, so I'll just move to a web based system, maybe tutanota or possibly protonmail. I've had my current e-mail address since 1996 so I'm a bit ***ed off it's going but c'est la vie. I'm also happy for NHS and government to have my e-mail address (they get it anyway when I renew my road tax), just curious as to how they got it. And, of course, if it really is them ....
 
I'd have reacted in the same way to it. If it is the government/NHS, then really they should be sending from a government or NHS email address. There will be others ignoring it as well, and that will include people that haven't already installed the app.
 
dan_ashcroft said:
"The email will come from ‘NHS Test and Trace COVID-19 App’":
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-19-app-emails-and-sms-messages

"Amazon Web Services (AWS) which hosts the central system (cloud server) that supports the app":
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...arly-adopter-trial-august-2020-privacy-notice

The final question is how they have your email address. I know that both the NHS and government have my email address. Personally, I'm happy for them to send me informative emails.
Click to expand...
If the NHS has your email address then that's how they've sent out the app emails.
Mine arrived in my junk box.
 
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