So in my Spam folder is Junk that is addressed to other email addy, not mine.
How does this happen and how can I stop it?
Thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: downtownv,

Without access to the message in question nobody can answer your question specifically. You may be able to figure it out yourself by examining the full headers, something that most mailers will not show you by default. In Apple Mail on macOS select the message and go to View->Message->All Headers or View->Message->Raw Source to see them. The headers will be at the top of the message and include such information as the original addressee, and what mail servers have handled the message.

As a more general explanation, most mail servers (technically MTAs == Mail Transport Agents) support the notion of email aliases where messages addresses can point to other message addresses, or a list of addresses. These get translated/expanded as messages flow through an MTA. So what you see is not necessarily what you get. Spammers often exploit this in an effort to push their crap through filters.

How to stop it? Subscribe to a mail service that charges extra for "additional addresses" and do not pay the additional fee. Your mail system administrator may be able to blackhole mails to you that have addresses you don't want to receive, but they may not want to do so as it can be a pain to keep playing whack-a-mole against a potentially unlimited universe of addresses.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
So in my Spam folder is Junk that is addressed to other email addy, not mine.
How does this happen ...
Thanks

A short lesson in how the email transport system works:

In formal snail mail there are two places addresses appear. They're called the "inside address" and the "envelope address." The former is what you see at the top of the actual correspondence. The latter goes on, you guessed it: The envelope.

Email works exactly the same way. The analogue to the "inside address" is in the email headers. The analogue to the envelope address (and that's what we call it, btw) is traded between mail servers. You never see it (*).

For the purposes of delivery, mail servers use the envelope address. The inside address, in the headers, is ignored for transport and delivery purposes.

So, just like if you put "Mr. Jones" on the heading of a snail mail letter, but put the letter in an envelope addressed to "Mr. Smith," so it goes with email

(*) Not strictly true. There will be what we call a "From-space" line at the top of the headers that reflects the true origination. And the "Received:" headers trace the route the email took, in reverse chronological order. There is other information in the headers that's useful if you know how to interpret it.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
... and how can I stop it?

Short answer: You can't. Long answer: Yeah, still: You can't.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
You may be able to figure it out yourself by examining the full headers, something that most mailers will not show you by default.

If he's talking about on iOS he's out of luck. The Apple iOS email client is kinda sorta brain-dead in that respect.

The only reason I keep using it is the auto destination folder when you move email. It's very handy.

quote:

Short answer: You can't. Long answer: Yeah, still: You can't.

For almost 30 years...

If I had a nickel for every-time I have said that, I could make an extinction event asteroid and still make change...

so is it worth "unsubscribe" or not?

Apple mail allows you to have multiple e-mail aliases, I believe up to five. For example, I might use sjxxx.pol at iCloud dot com for political donations, sjxxx.bus at iCloud dot com for online ordering.
You can then set up rules that .pol or .bus addresses go to their respective folders.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
so is it worth "unsubscribe" or not?

Hit or miss.

In some cases, "unsubscribe" will get you off a list.
In other cases, you just verified a "person" is at the other end of the email address, and you get sold/added to a list of "active" email addresses and more spam will follow.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
so is it worth "unsubscribe" or not?

Not unless you know it's a legitimate sender. If they're sending email to you to a spoofed recipient address that automatically makes them illegitimate. All you'll be doing, then, is verifying to them they've found a live one.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Apple mail allows you to have multiple e-mail aliases, I believe up to five. For example, I might use sjxxx.pol at iCloud dot com for political donations, sjxxx.bus at iCloud dot com for online ordering.

Not necessarily necessary. Apple mail properly handles "plussed" (aka: "tagged") email addresses. E.g.: If my main email address was "jsmith@example.com", email to "jsmith+foo@example.com" would be delivered to me.

That works on gmail, too. And every other more-or-less standard email server. (It does not work on Microsoft's email systems, e.g.: outlook.com, last time I checked.)

So what you do is give your contact a contact-specific tagged address. E.g.: For Amazon you might give them "jsmith+amazon@example.com".

There are multiple advantages to using tagged addresses:

• When you receive an email ostensibly from a legitimate source, and it wasn't sent to the proper tagged address, you can be nearly certain it's bogus.
  
• If you receive an email to a tagged address from somebody other than to whom you gave it, either they sold your email address or their database got hacked.
  
• Somebody attempting to break into an account with which you've registered with a tagged address has to figure out both what tagged email address you used and your password.
  
• You can whitelist and automatically file incoming email based on the tagged address.
  

Not all sites will accept a tagged address as a valid email address. (Because many software designers are clueless about email.) Worse: Some will accept it, then break in mysterious ways when you try to use it.

N.B.: I used "example.com" as a domain for all examples because that's what you're supposed to use (yes, that's actually an Internet standard) for example email addresses, web addresses, etc. "example.net", "example.org" and "example.edu" are likewise reserved for that use.

Don’t unsubscribe unless you know it is a legitimate emailer! I found out the hard way it’s like throwing water on a grease fire.