On Fri, 6 May 2005, FORC5 wrote:
Hey all, Just in the past few days, I have gotten probably 100 emails that look similar with many of them containing viruses. My email address is not in the to: list. How do I get them if I am not in the to: list? Anyone else getting these lately?
When email is sent across the internet it comes with an "envelope" just like the USPS, mail servers only really care about what is on the envelope of the message.
I could stuff a letter to my aunt into an envelope, complete with "To: Auntie Fisk" at the top of the message, thanking her for her wonderful cookies. Then stuff that letter into an envelope and address the envelope to the Governer of New York State.
That letter will be delivered to the gov.
In SMTP the server removes the envelope and just delivered the email message, so it would be similar to an assistant opening the envelope and the gov sitting down and reading the letter to my aunt and asking himself "WTF".
Hope that analogy helps,
Christopher Fisk -- BOFH Excuse #409: The vulcan-death-grip ping has been applied.