[clug] Strange email messages

Kim Holburn kim.holburn at anu.edu.au
Tue Sep 23 21:23:34 EST 2003


At 8:57 PM +1000 2003/09/23, Pearl Louis wrote:
>Hi!
>
>Not really to do with Linux...Besides the latest MS viruses that keep on
>overwhelming my yahoo email account *Sigh* every single day now, those
>viruses fill up my mailbox from 4% full to >100% full, I've been getting
>messages along the line of:
>
>
>Message from rocketmail.net
>
>I'm afraid the message returned below could not be delivered to the following
>addresses:
>
>
>
>Undeliverable mail to cufnjtswmy at rocketmail.net
>
>
>Anyone have any idea about what's going on?  I hardly ever send (or usually
>receive any non-spam) email from these addresses.   It just used to be a few
>messages like this, but now they seem to be as numerous as those stupid MS
>viruses that keep on filling up my inbox.

Yeah, the viruses send emails to and from random people in whoever's address book they find, (could be you) then if the letter bounces the bounce goes to another punter.  Each viral infection causes huge number of emails, bounces, the anti-virus scanners kindly bounce the bogus emails back to someone else at random.

Spammers use the same technique, potentially two victims with each spam.  A dictionary attack against a mailserver with real "from" addresses.  Perhaps the bounce messages are the real spam?  They get through the anti-spam filters?  Sneaky eh?

Fun, fun fun.

Kim
-- 
--
Kim Holburn 
Network Consultant - Telecommunications Engineering
Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering
Australian National University - Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 0417820641
Email: kim.holburn at anu.edu.au  - PGP Public Key on request

Life is complex - It has real and imaginary parts.
     Andrea Leistra (rec.arts.sf.written.Robert-jordan)



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