how does someone's email addess suddenly become the sender of spam?
Correspondent:: "Jenna Talia" Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 14:39:17 -0500
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Hi all,
Haven't on the group for many months but though I'd post to get straight
answer to a question about spam.
here's my situation---
Yesterday and the day before I was sent spam SOLICITING of Cialis.
The problem is--the sender is using my email REAL ISP address. I check the
headers to see if I could get a handle on how this is happening and I wish
I would've saved the headers for you to look at, but I didn't.
I want to how this got started and what can I do stop this crap.
If not enough has been provided, I'll be on-line and periodically to
answer any additional questions you may have.
Thanks a bunch
Correspondent:: "iDRMRSR" Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 16:00:05 -0500
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You prolly sent the spam to yourself whilst you were, as they say in the ER,
"altered". Either that or evil minions of some demon possessed you to do
this. No telling what other heinous things you could have done in such a
state, either.
I wouldn't go crowing about this all over the internet. While many things
are put up with, sending yourself spam is a real taboo comparable to
sniffing your sister's brother's underwear. It's just not done, and not
discussed. The internet has SOME morals, you know.
I am an expert in the field of computers, and I can attest that it is
TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE to fake the sending address of an email, or alter the
headers, or even create your own packets which seem to do these things. No
such equipment exists in reality. Please don't believe anyone who tells you
otherwise! Don't be gullible!
And while we're at it, did you know there is no such word as GULLIBLE? No,
it's a made-up term. Once again, if you don't believe me, look it up!
[*]
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Correspondent:: brthrn@dangermedia.org
Date: 30 Jan 2005 15:05:53 -0800
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"I have seen my own ghost."
Correspondent:: "Jenna Talia" Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 18:32:44 -0500
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>
> I wouldn't go crowing about this all over the internet. While many things
> are put up with, sending yourself spam is a real taboo comparable to
> sniffing your sister's brother's underwear.
are you TRYING to be a wise-ass. I have no INTEREST in sending spam, let
alone promote Cialis or any other MALE enhancements.
> I am an expert in the field of computers, and I can attest that it is
> TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE to fake the sending address of an email, or alter the
> headers,
OK, next time it happens, I will save the email and headers. I will
lie-in-wait.
I gotta tell ya, though, it really shook me up.
Correspondent:: "iDRMRSR" Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 20:16:28 -0500
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>>are you TRYING to be a wise-ass. I have no INTEREST in sending spam,
>>let
alone promote Cialis or any other MALE enhancements.
OK, you called me out on this. I plead guilty, I was funnin' with you.
Really, the reason you seem to have gotten a spam from "yourself" is
actually quite simple to explain.
You see, there are simply more users on the planet than there are available
Email addresses. So the spammer happened to be assigned the same Email as
you. Usually they try to keep this far apart, like giving jsmith@msn.com to
John Smith in England, and John Smith in South Africa, as well. But if one
of them turns out to be a spammer, well, you see what happens.
There's a whole thing called ICANN or CERN or something like that out there
that publishes these thingies called RFC's that spell out all the rules
about where things go as they cross the internet.
What I find to be a lot of fun is to send myself a lot of Emails. Once in a
while, due to a packet getting rerouted to some other country, the Email
ends up in the other guy's inbox. Sometimes, he'll even reply to me and
then I have found like, a pen pal or something, whatever you call it on the
internet. I mean, that's really neato when you find someone out in the real
world who has the same name as you, same principle!
After all, Emails work about the same as phone numbers. I moved into this
condo three years ago, and got what I thought was a new telephone number.
But then a bunch of people kept calling the number and asking for the FORMER
owner. So it could be the former owner going around town telling everybody
his OLD number which is my NEW number. That could be happening with your
Email address, too. The old guy could still be giving it out.
Now that I think of it, there also was this old internet before the one that
we are using. I think they phased over to the new internet in 1995 or 1996.
Back then, the "new" internet was used as an alternative to the "old" one.
That's why all these newsgroups (which is something new with the "new"
internet) start out with "alt.". They had to try the idea out someplace, so
they used the new internet and called all the groups "alt.something".
Then when they switched over, rather than confuse everybody, they left the
"alt." stuff around because everybody got used to it.
I think some parts of Iowa and Montana, along with a few South American
countries and remote parts of China are using the "old" internet. Could be
someone in the "old" internet has the same Email as you do.
That's a thought...
Anyhow, you don't have anything to fear if you are getting spam from your
own Email address. This part is absolutely true. I mean, what would you
do, report YOURSELF to your ISP?
But really, you should try that thing I mentioned and send lots of Emails to
yourself over the course of several days. Once in a while, one of them will
route to the "other" "you", and maybe you can find a good friend someplace
just like I have on a few occasions!
[*]
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Correspondent:: Zapanaz Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:41:50 -0800
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On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 20:16:28 -0500, "iDRMRSR"
wrote:
>>>are you TRYING to be a wise-ass. I have no INTEREST in sending spam,
>>>let
>alone promote Cialis or any other MALE enhancements.
>
>OK, you called me out on this. I plead guilty, I was funnin' with you.
>
>Really, the reason you seem to have gotten a spam from "yourself" is
>actually quite simple to explain.
>
>You see, there are simply more users on the planet than there are available
>Email addresses. So the spammer happened to be assigned the same Email as
>you. Usually they try to keep this far apart, like giving jsmith@msn.com to
>John Smith in England, and John Smith in South Africa, as well. But if one
>of them turns out to be a spammer, well, you see what happens.
>
>There's a whole thing called ICANN or CERN or something like that out there
>that publishes these thingies called RFC's that spell out all the rules
>about where things go as they cross the internet.
>
>What I find to be a lot of fun is to send myself a lot of Emails. Once in a
>while, due to a packet getting rerouted to some other country, the Email
>ends up in the other guy's inbox. Sometimes, he'll even reply to me and
>then I have found like, a pen pal or something, whatever you call it on the
>internet. I mean, that's really neato when you find someone out in the real
>world who has the same name as you, same principle!
>
>After all, Emails work about the same as phone numbers. I moved into this
>condo three years ago, and got what I thought was a new telephone number.
>But then a bunch of people kept calling the number and asking for the FORMER
>owner. So it could be the former owner going around town telling everybody
>his OLD number which is my NEW number. That could be happening with your
>Email address, too. The old guy could still be giving it out.
>
>Now that I think of it, there also was this old internet before the one that
>we are using. I think they phased over to the new internet in 1995 or 1996.
>Back then, the "new" internet was used as an alternative to the "old" one.
>That's why all these newsgroups (which is something new with the "new"
>internet) start out with "alt.". They had to try the idea out someplace, so
>they used the new internet and called all the groups "alt.something".
>
>Then when they switched over, rather than confuse everybody, they left the
>"alt." stuff around because everybody got used to it.
>
>I think some parts of Iowa and Montana, along with a few South American
>countries and remote parts of China are using the "old" internet. Could be
>someone in the "old" internet has the same Email as you do.
>
>That's a thought...
>
>Anyhow, you don't have anything to fear if you are getting spam from your
>own Email address. This part is absolutely true. I mean, what would you
>do, report YOURSELF to your ISP?
>
>But really, you should try that thing I mentioned and send lots of Emails to
>yourself over the course of several days. Once in a while, one of them will
>route to the "other" "you", and maybe you can find a good friend someplace
>just like I have on a few occasions!
>
Well that's all quite possible, but you are overlooking the obvious.
In order for an email to -come to- you, it first has to -go out- from
someplace, right? Somebody sends it, somebody receives it. But
nobody thought about what would happen when all these people were
using the same address to both indicate who sent a mail and who
received it.
What people never seem to consider is that the Internet is all
electrical. Underneath all the gobble di gook, your computer is a
machine hooked up to the international telephone system generating
electrical signals. Sending a signal puts a tiny electrical pressure
on this system, and receiving one put a tiny electrical suction on it.
So what would happen if -everybody- sent an email at the same time? A
single email in millivolts, but there are -billions- of people on that
internet. So we're talking about -thousands- of volts suddenly pumped
into a closed electrical system.
And that's a lot of electricity. If there weren't enough release
points available, you'd have Internet servers blowing up all over the
world.
But because it's an electrical system, all that electricity will just
dissipate. Like a lightning rod. It will find the closest place to
dissipate the extra electricity, and it will have to suck an email out
of that computer's email box through the "out" box.
So the best thing for her to do would be to move somewhere where there
aren't so many people using the internet. She must have a lot of
people near her sending or receiving email at the same time so it is
sucking on her email. Or she could probably just hook up a lightning
rod to her motherboard, through the USB port or whatever, to ground
the extra load.
--
Zapanaz
International Satanic Conspiracy
Customer Support Specialist
http://joecosby.com/
"Murphys law was not discovered by Murphy but by a man with the same name."
Tilmann Kuhn
Correspondent:: "iDRMRSR" Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:58:47 -0500
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>>and it will have to suck an email out
of that computer's email box through the "out" box.
Thanks Z for reminding me about this. I actually had to worry about this at
one place where I was working.
It's something called TCP back pressure. I'm pretty sure the following link
will clear the whole thing up. It's got lots of pictures and stuff.
Prolly gonna be a lot more info than Jenny wants to know, but, at some point
just like with a car, you gotta git your hands under the hood and dirty 'em
up until you get roadworthy again:
One thing you could do is keep all the old emails out of your inbox once
they are read and copy them to another folder so the back pressure doesn't
suck them out when this happens! That's what I do. If your inbox is empty,
there's nothing there to suck from.
[*]
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Correspondent:: "Jenna Talia" Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:07:13 -0500
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> Prolly gonna be a lot more info than Jenny wants to know, but, at some
> point just like with a car, you gotta git your hands under the hood and
> dirty 'em up until you get roadworthy again:
>
> http://www.ieee-infocom.org/1999/papers/04a_03.pdf
>
> One thing you could do is keep all the old emails out of your inbox once
> they are read and copy them to another folder so the back pressure doesn't
> suck them out when this happens! That's what I do. If your inbox is
> empty, there's nothing there to suck from.
>
> [*]
> -----
>
>
Thanks, I REALLY appreciate the time you spent to write this.