internet guru please.

[sahona]

I know there are people here that are up to date with today's technology and can possibly help.
I'm aware of VPNs , proxy servers, private servers (10.xxx.xxx.xxx etc.). Are they bullet-proof or is there a way of discovering who is spamming my email? I've done some Googling and actually used to be a techie (20 years ago) so am not totally dumb, but it seems anyone can create a new Email account, spend a few dollars a month on a VPN app (or similar), and he/she becomes untraceable and can say anything to anyone with no recourse.
Can this be right? Some incoming stuff is damaging and possibly illegal, Is there an authority I can go to in order to get this stopped?
Some IP addresses involved - 15.1.947.12 invalid, but take out the 9 and you get HP
16.1650.10.2230799 "
65.55.92.152 Msoft texas
10.171.89.148, 10.152.12.59, 10.152.13.246, 10.152.12.54, and more - all private
74.125.82.179 Google sanJose
I realise some of these private servers are used for corporate internal nets. Could an employee take advantage of that setup?

[BlowingOldBoots]

Not an internet guru so my advice is limited to that of a user that receives spam. I am ruthless with with the block feature on my email and the unsubscribe feature. It works and keeps spam down. However, unsubscribe has a habit of reappearing a few months later, similar advert, different company. It works for me.

[Bodach na mara]

I asked my soon about this a while ago as he is an I G and I was getting spam on Hotmail that was apparently coming from my Hotmail address. I had tried to block it but naturally got a failure message telling me that I could not block my own address. His advice was to just ignore it and it would go away. Eventually. And it did. He told me that scammers can insert any spoof email address in the "From" box and that is why even messages that seem to come from genuine addresses (such as your bank) can be fake. I think that daftest one that I got was from "me" and was along the lines of "I saw your page on Facebook and you look like a hot chick --- etc". I don't do Facebook BTW.

I also asked how I would know if anyone is sending messages to other people in my name and got the answer that I would not as if they were daft enough to reply to one by clicking the "Reply" button, it would not in fact come to me but would go to the spoofer's address or into the wild blue nowhere. And I still do not know how this all works. I suspect that someone had cracked the system at the college where I used to work as I receive the odd message from ex-colleagues. I often know these are fake as the people in question no longer work there. Most of the messages are not actually looking for a reply anyway, but want a click on a link in the message.

[JeffNev]

It's all very complicated.

The number of times a week I get an email from "Apple" or my bank, only to see the email address from fake@clearlyfake.com is deeply worrying. I'm afraid in my old age that it might only take one lapse in concentration to do something really foolish, like hand over my banking details. Is ignoring it all my best bet?

[Nick]

Nothing you can do, any email address can be spoofed as a 'from' address, doesn't mean anyone has access to your account.

Spammers tend to rotate spoofed addresses, so this will stop at some (not too distant) point.

As for phishing emails - the rule is simple. Don't click on a link in an email - ever - unless you are 100% sure you know exactly where the link leads.

[cpedw]

As for phishing emails - the rule is simple. Don't click on a link in an email - ever - unless you are 100% sure you know exactly where the link leads.

This brings up a gripe I have about my email provider - gmx (and I think MS Outlook is similar) - links in emails show up a very long URL that starts gmx.com ... when you hover over them so you can't see at a glance where it wants to take you. I think it's risky.

Are other email providers the same?

Derek