I think I tried it and found a bug that really caused a hassle. it was one of the boxes I wanted left blank and it would not let me. no matter what number I entered it was not right even though I used the rule it said was right. and I could not get it past that point. it was the same on my wife's computer and mine.
Wow. Do you know if they do that, yet? That's brilliant, if they do.
*lots* of virus-type stuff grabs 'random' addresses from anywhere it can find it on the HD of the local computer -- address-books, saved e-mail messages, saved USENET articles, 'temporary' (cached) web-page copies, etc., etc., ad naseum. Literally -anything- that looks like : {foo}@{domain}.{standard-TLD} is fair game.
There is a bunch of other stuff that specifically targetts addresses that have been 'harvested' from USENET newsgroup postings. I see, literally, _doesns_ of attempts per day to the 'from' address on this posting. My psychic mail- server, however, lets only those messages that are a 'reply' to the article get through. :)
I havn't seen anything _to_ that address that had a forged sender that was a real address, let alone a forged sender that was an 'in use' address for postings to USENET.
Love the message threading but I'm missing the right click "open in new tab" from Netscape. Any way to get that operational?
bob g.
GregP wrote:
Yes - I only talk about the well-known stuff, not the "exciting new ideas in spam delivery" (as a recent flier flogging spam services put it). There are ideas being offered for sale that the spammers aren't even using yet.
Much of the really annoying spam these days comes from botnets of
0wn3d home-PCs, not from a few huge spamboilers in server bunkers. Rather than the old way of large traded lists of target emails, many of these bots are simply told "send some spam" and left to choose their own targets - this is why you'll often receive many copies of the same spam. Client-side spam targetting can be from a list the 'bot was given, or snooped from a local addressbook. If the client runs OE for Usenet too, they're wide open for hosting a "thread attack" like this.
I have seen spam/virus where they get two addresses from a person's compromised computer, and sends a virus to one address with a faked From: using the other address. This increases the changes that the person will fall for the virus, because it increases the chances they know the From: address. I see viruses from names I recognized, send by a third part.
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