No code. You receive an HTML message. In the HTML it includes <img src=http://someIP/TrackingImages/SomeUniquelyGeneratedImageName.Gif> The Gif file is probably a blank image and can be generated by the server. The fact that the image is requested - because the client tries to pull it from the Internet to display it is tracked and because the name of the file is unique to the recipient they then know that emnail address to be active. Unfortunately, unlike other distinctions in your IE settings this setting cannot be associated with your security zone. So, you don't have the option to view images in Internet Explorer when viewing sites in your Internet zone, but not in email when viewing from your Restricted Sites Zone.
Since you are using scanning software, perhaps you could strip <img> tags from HTML email, but this might render some newsletters unreadable. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of RBHATIA Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:22 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Can this happen with Spam ? Hi, As I try to battle the tons of spam related email my organization receives everyday, I am amazed at the increasing number of emails targetting our organization despite the fact that we do have a filtering technology in place. Which brings me to the question - are we doing something to invite these emails ? I came across an article by Brian Livingstone recently about spam and how certain tactics can invite spammers to your organization. I quote a statement from his article relating to the results of an experiment they carried out at some law firm - "They found that 83 percent of the spam being received contained a coded "tracking" image. When the image was downloaded to be displayed in the message, it alerted the senders that a message sent to a specific address had been viewed. This is now the most prevalent mechanism by which spammers find "live" accounts, in my opinion." Is this possible in Outlook ? The article said something about with the Preview pane being turned on in Outlook, this was more likely to happen or just opening an email with this sort of an image in it could also trigger the code. How can this happen ? This means Outlook is allowing some code to get executed that passes information back to the source. Isn't there a security patch to prevent this from happening ? RB _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
