On Thu, 13 Feb 2003, at 9:27am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Has anyone here [had their email address forged by a spammer] and if so
> what did they do about it?
Yes, I or one of my clients have, several times and at several different
locations. Often, the spammer will just pick an address at random from
their list of potential send-to addresses.
There is very little you can do about this.
Anyone can set any "From" address they want in an email message. Unlike
most spoofing/forging attacks in use today, even an ignorant user [1] can do
this. As part of mail setup, most mail programs offer a GUI interface that
asks what you want your "From" address to be. It doesn't take much
technical know-how, or any special software, to fill in
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" instead of "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
The problem is that there are many other ignorant users [1] who blindly
hit the "Reply" button when they receive a spam, because they don't have any
better ideas. I recommend a polite form letter, explaining the situation,
and directing the replier to resources that might help them track down the
actual spammer.
If you can obtain a copy of the complete mail headers from the original
spam message, you may be able to track down the spammer yourself. If you're
especially lucky, you might even be able to track down an individual person
or organization, and have their ISP terminate their access. However, more
than likely, the spam will come from a throw-away account, or an over-seas
ISP that couldn't care less about your complaints (assuming you even speak a
common language). Even if you do get someone terminated, they will often be
back online within days or even hours. We call this a "whack-a-mole"
problem.
Welcome to today's Internet. Here's your accordion [2].
Footnotes
---------
[1] For those with a poor grasp of logic, note that my statement does not
say that all users are ignorant.
[2] With credit to Gary Larson.
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do |
| not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. |
| All information is provided without warranty of any kind. |
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