OT: E Mail ?

[Bill B]

Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
Curious Bill

 

[Wile E.Coyote]

I had a Jewish friend who used to receive the most vile and deeply disturbed snail mail you could
imagine...he was so outraged he'd write and equally vile reply and put it in the mail box and it
would arrive at his address 2 or 3 days later. I was waiting for him to start sending himself letter
bombs next.

In your case....assuming you are not sending yourself messages, would think someone just copied your
name and email address and put into their address book. When sending you the email, they just did an
Identity change so your name/info appears as the sender. Hopefully someone more into this can
reply....Cletus Lee perhaps.
------------------------------
"Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill

 

[John Riley]

"Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill [/B][/QUOTE]

 

[John Riley]

Whoops, I pushed the wrong button and sent a reply before typed anything.

Anyway, I got the same email; i.e. something _to_ me _from_ me. I didn't open it.

Originally posted by John Riley
"Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill

[/B][/QUOTE]

 

[Lewis Campbell]

You're a nice guy, Bill, perhaps someone is just trying to help you to get rich.

Lewis.

...................

[email protected] (Bill B) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill

 

[John Foltz]

[email protected] (Bill B) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill
>
I average about a hundred SPAMS a week. About half of them are returned mail that was sent to an
invalid email address. I didn't send them, but my name was in the 'from', so I get the returned
stuff. Most of it is **** or offers for 'body enhancement' products.

As Wile E. writes, this is a form of identity theft, and pretty easy to do if you're willing to
play with your email settings. The TCP address can still be backtracked to the offender and the
FTC can threated the miscreant with fraud. Forward the mail to your ISP and see if they can do
anything with it.

 

[Chere]

I got one of those (from me) too a few months ago and wondered the same thing. I asked my 'puter
guru and his response was what John said; with an adjustment to the settings, we can be "anyone"...
however I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) a glance at the Properties of said email will reveal
the culprit.

How does one train in this weather??? Rain, rain, rain.... ad nauseam. GOBA coming up and we need to
get out there and spin!

--
Chere ~ GRR Sanibel, FL / Cumberland, MD

 

[Bill B]

It's easy, 1-2-3, like taking candy, from a babee....

To send this (from Outlook Express), I simply modified the Name and Email Address properties of the
news account through which I receive the postings from this group. OE will let you present yourself
as anybody you want to be.

So it's a good idea to take newsgroup and email identities with a grain of salt.

--
Greg Dunn (returning now to my normal identity)

"Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I
> recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch
> of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me.
> Curious Bill

 

[Cletus Lee]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> ... Hopefully someone more into this can reply....Cletus Lee perhaps.
> ------------------------------
> "Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info.
> > Question-----I recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and
> > body was a bunch of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way
> > it was to me. Curious Bill

More than you want to know I'm sure. Every piece of E-mail sent out has a header that contains lots
of stuff about who it is going to and where it came from. The sending email client can place
anything in the following fields: 'TO:', 'FROM:', 'RETURN-PATH:', 'REPLY-TO:'.

The 'RECEIVED:' fields are added successively by The Mail servers that received and pass off mail to
each other. The last (top) one should be the mail server at your ISP

Here is an example:

From: "Comp. #389FD - 493A" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Return-Path:
<[email protected]> Received: from mx7.airmail.net from [209.196.77.104] by
mail2.iadfw.net (/\##/\ Smail3.1.30.16 #30.61) with esmtp for <[email protected]> sender:
<bounce-63546452 @freestuffwizard.com>
id <mO/[email protected]>; Fri, 23 May 2003 08:42:55 -0500 (CDT) Received: from
[4.42.203.141] (helo=som.freestuffwizard.com) by mx7.airmail.net with esmtp (Exim
4.10) id 19JCoU-000H9Q-00 for [email protected]; Fri, 23 May 2003 08:42:27 -0500
Received: from [10.10.0.141] (helo=s14.freestuffwizard.com ident=root) by
som.freestuffwizard.com with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1) id 19JCBA-0007I4-01 for
<[email protected]>; Fri, 23 May 2003 08:01:48 -0500 Reply-To:
[email protected]

If you hit reply instead of placing the 'From:' into the 'To:' field of a new email, Your reply will
go to the address in the 'Reply-To:' field which can be different from the address in the 'From:'
Field. If a mail server can not deliver the mail to an address in the 'To:' field, then the mail
server will return a message to the address listed in the 'Return-Path:'

But who originated the message. Often this is unclear since spammers take advantage of mail servers
that still allow an 'open-relay' of anonymous mail clients. (The Mail Servers have to by nature
accept and pass on mail for other servers) In the example above the IP address of the servers in the
'Received:' is a clue. The last (top) one (209.196.77.104) is my ISP (Internet America in Dallas).
The next one is a public IP Since it has a Class A address
(4.42.203.141) The first one is a private IP (10.10.0.141) and is located somewhere behind a
firewall It has no direct access to the internet but must talk to a router that
passes IP packets out.

Most mail clients shield the user from the Header stuff. Some like Outlook make it particularly
difficult for the user to even see the header. For Outlook, in the message window, click on the menu
<VIEW><OPTIONS> to see the complete message header.

--

Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager http://www.clee.org
- Bellaire, TX USA -

 

[Greg Dunn]

...that being this one.

--
Greg Dunn

"Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:%gqza.695439$OV.649427@rwcrnsc54...
> It's easy, 1-2-3, like taking candy, from a babee....
>
> To send this (from Outlook Express), I simply modified the Name and Email Address properties of
> the news account through which I receive the
postings
> from this group. OE will let you present yourself as anybody you want to be.
>
> So it's a good idea to take newsgroup and email identities with a grain of salt.
>
> --
> Greg Dunn (returning now to my normal identity)
>
>
> "Bill B" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Way OT I know But a bunch of you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info.
> > Question-----I recieved a Email today from me to me from some one other than me.The subject and
> > body was a bunch of BS about a get rich scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way
> > it was to me. Curious Bill

 

[John Foltz]

chere wrote:
> ... however I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) a glance at the Properties of said email will
> reveal the culprit.
>
Yes, sort of. Looking at header information, the culprit's true TCP/IP address will be revealed.
Even us mortals can access tools that track the address back to an ISP, and from there the ISP can,
if it is so inclined, identify the abuser.

Unfortunately, most established SPAMmers have been kicked off from dozens of ISPs and are now on
servers that are either sympathetic to SPAM or else deliberately cater to it. Bottom line, if you
can track a SPAM back to Yahoo or MSN or some other reputable service provider, report it to them
and they will disconnect the bum. If it is coming from uunet or some other spammer server, they may
acknowledge you but they won't stop as long as there's money in it for them. If your ISP is serious
about controlling SPAM, they may be collecting these returned emails for reporting to the FTC, who
has gone after at least one of them already.
--

John Foltz --- O _ Baron --- _O _ V-Rex 24/63 --- _\\/\-%)
_________(_)`=()___________________(_)= (_)_____

 

[Vol]

This is getting to be a common spammer trick. The data you see in your FROM: field is not in the
same as SMTP servers use in exchanging messages.

There's a good explanation of mail headers at
http://www.iinet.net.au/support/spam/understanding.html

(And there are serveral better ones out there that I didn't find with a quick search.)

>f you ARBR bent heads are whiz bangs with computer info. Question-----I recieved a Email today from
>me to me from some one other than me.The subject and body was a bunch of BS about a get rich
>scam.How can someone send you a e mail addressed the way it was to me. Curious Bill