Description

This rule detects messages from individuals looking to establish contact under the guise of seeking friendship or a penpal relationship. Over time, they build trust and then exploit this relationship by asking for money, personal information, or involvement in suspicious activities.

References

No references.

Sublime Security
Created Nov 21st, 2023 • Last updated Sep 23rd, 2026
Source
type.inbound

// the sender or the reply-to is a freemail provider
and (
  sender.email.domain.domain in $free_email_providers
  or (
    not sender.email.domain.root_domain in $free_email_providers
    and any(headers.reply_to,
            .email.domain.root_domain in $free_email_providers
    )
  )
)

// body contains pen ?pal
and regex.contains(body.current_thread.text, 'pen\s?pal')

// and NLU Request
and any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
        .name == "request"
)

// not a reply
and (length(headers.references) == 0 or headers.in_reply_to is null)

// negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
and not (
  sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
  and coalesce(headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass, false)
)
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