[dba-Tech] Spammers

I get messages like that from time to time. When this has happened to
me it's always been a case of SPOOFING I think it's called. If you go
in and look at the rejected e-mail detail you might see that these
messages didn't come from her e-mail address at all but were just
pretending to come from that address.   Have a look at this Wikipedea
entry for Backscatter which is maybe what your friend is experiencing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_%28e-mail%29

GK

On 6/2/08, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:
> A friend of mine is receiving "not received" or "rejected"
> emails by the hundreds per week.  I thought her computer was
> probably hijacked and had her bring it over.  After running
> all of my scans I am seeing nothing.
>
> She mentioned that it was her "business email address", and
> that the cable company had "given her a new password".  With
> her computer in hand, I opened Outlook express and see just
> a few personal emails, and no sign of infections etc.
>
> I am now thinking that perhaps someone has hijacked her
> email account assigned by the cable company, and that
> perhaps she uses through a browser (web based email).  If
> that is the case, then her computer is not sending these
> emails, which certainly correlates with what I am seeing on
> her physical machine.
>
> So is it possible for spammers to hijack a browser based
> email and send spam through that without infecting the PC of
> the owner?
>
> --
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
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>


-- 
Gary Kjos
garykjos at gmail.com