"Test message" e-mail

[Glaurung]

I've four similar but rather strange e-mails today: from random senders, with titles containing the word Test and an 8-character code, and contents consisting of a few unrelated sentences. It looks to me like a spammer testing a database of addresses to see whether they bounce. Has anyone else had any of these?

[Cuddly Khan]

What e-mial provider are you using? G-mail?

[Jubal]

"Test mesage 257499V?"

[comrade_general]

It seems our probes have been successful. Initiate the death tetrahedron!

[Glaurung]

What e-mial provider are you using? G-mail?

Not G-mail. These messages went variously to 2 different personal addresses with Orange, a society committee address at Cambridge University, and an out-of-date work address. Three quite different domains.

"Test mesage 257499V?"

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing.

[Othko97]

Probably just the NSA or GCHQ.

[Jubal]

Aye - I got one to the Cam email. I guess you're right, likely to be testing for bounces.