Please note that the chartists.net domain name is never used to send outgoing email. If, over the past few days, you have received email apparently from “buttress@chartists.net”, then I can assure you that it did not originate from this website.

In short, you have been the subject of an email spoofing attack, in which spammers have forged the “from” email address in the email header to make it appear as though it originated with me. There is, I am afraid, nothing I can do about this, and as I have received hundreds of “bounced” emails I am just as much a victim as other recipients.

This is how Wikipedia explains email spoofing:

“E-mail spoofing is a term used to describe fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though the email originated from a different source. E-mail spoofing is a technique commonly used for spam e-mail and phishing to hide the origin of an e-mail message. By changing certain properties of the e-mail, such as the From, Return-Path and Reply-To fields (which can be found in the message header), ill-intentioned users can make the e-mail appear to be from someone other than the actual sender.”

The only advice I can offer is: do not open the email; if you must, then do not reply to it; and whatever you do, do not click on any links the email may contain.