Cheers to All Here is an article that I pulled out of the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter that tells you how to find out who the real sender of a message is. You can use it for junk mail and spams: Noel - -------------------------- - More on Junk E-mail You know the problem: obnoxious, unsolicited e-mail messages in your in-basket, advertising everything from music CDs to Viagra to "work at home get-rich-quick" scams. These unwanted intrusions into your e-mail are common, and the number of such messages is increasing. Why are you getting them? What can you do about them? The first question is easy to answer: You are receiving these messages because it is profitable for the companies sending them. These so-called "spam" messages cost almost nothing to send. Many spammers can send a million e-mails in one day at a cost of a very few pennies. If only 1/10 of 1% of the messages result in a sale, the person sending the message can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars per day! Many one-person operations use spam mail as an effective form of advertising. Reputable companies do not use these methods. Correct etiquette dictates that companies only send e-mails to a pre-qualified list of individuals who have an interest in the products or services of that company. Reputable companies only send e-mails to individuals who have communicated with that company in the past. Those companies also provide methods for the recipients to choose to not receive future e-mails. This is called a subscriber-based list. Of course, a reputable company never sells its mailing list to anyone else. Unfortunately, the spam mailers do not have such scruples. The second question is a bit tougher to answer: What can you do about them? In the early days of spam mail, all you had to do was send an e- mail to the sender's Internet service provider, and the account would be shut down for inappropriate use. However, the sleazy characters who send these messages quickly learned to hide their identities. Unfortunately, it is very easy to forge e-mail return addresses. If you received a spam message from john1234@aol.com or from make-money-fast@hotmail.com, chances are that there is no such account at either AOL or at HotMail. The person sending the spam message has forged the return address. Most spam mail is sent by one of the bulk mail programs. These programs are similar to your e-mail program (Eudora, Outlook, Microsoft Mail, etc.) except for three things: (1.) they only send e-mail; they do not receive, (2.) they are optimized to send thousands of messages in as short a time as possible, and (3.) they are designed to hide the e-mail identity of the sender. I occasionally receive spam mail showing a return address of "@". That's right, just an "at" sign. Nothing else. If the recipient cannot figure out who sent it or what Internet service provider was used, then it is impossible to send a complaint to the provider that was used. Until recently you could still determine the originator's Internet service provider by simply looking at the e-mail headers and decoding all the extra lines you find there. The routing information normally shows where the message originated as well as all relay points along the way. However, a number of bulk mailing programs now feature "cloaking." This means that the origin of the message is hidden in such a way as to be difficult or impossible to detect. These cloaking programs do more than simply forge the return address; they may forge network information as well. Next, some Internet service providers simply don't care. A few advertise their services to those who want to send spam mail, proudly proclaiming that "your account will not be shut down because of complaints." While there are very few such "rogue" Internet service providers, they do account for a high percentage of the spam mail that you may receive. Where did they get your address? Gathering e-mail addresses is easy to do. A number of programs are available that will "harvest" addresses from Web sites, newsgroups, forums and even online e-mail directories. These "address finders" will search for valid e-mail addresses. You don't even have to post a message in order to have your e-mail address "harvested." If someone else ever mentioned your e-mail address in the text of a message, you may receive bulk e-mails. For instance, let's say that a distant cousin of yours posts a reply in a genealogy newsgroup that says "For more information on that, you should contact John Smith at jsmith@xyz.com." You can believe that jsmith@xyz.com will receive spam mail in the near future even though he never posted a message on any newsgroup. The same is true for an e-mail address that appears on a Web page. The programs that "harvest" e-mail addresses look on Web pages too. Spammers are experts at buying and selling e-mail lists. Anyone can now buy CD-ROM disks containing one million or more e-mail addresses for a very few dollars. With these disks spam mailers send unwanted e-mails to everyone listed. Once your e-mail address appears on one such disk, it is doomed to appear again and again on others. What can you do to stop spam mail? First, you can decode the e-mail message's header information, which shows all the stops it made on the way to your in-box. Then you can complain to the Internet service provider used to send the message. If cloaking is not being used and if the Internet service provider has a responsible no-spam policy, this can be very effective. To view the e-mail header, you usually have to turn on an option in your e-mail program. For example, in Netscape Messenger, open the message and click on View, Page Source. In Eudora Pro, click on the "blah blah blah" icon to see all the details. The best way to make sense of a header is to use a free decoding utility like Sam Spade (available at http://www.samspade.org). I used SamSpade to trace the origin of some unwanted messages that I have been receiving. Even though the e-mails show a funny return address outside the U.S., SamSpade shows that the messages really came from Alter.net, an Internet service provider in Texas. If I wish, I can send a complaint to abuse@alter.net. NOTE: The e-mail address of "abuse@..." is a de facto standard these days for reporting any abuse by a customer of an Internet service provider. For instance, to report problems caused by an AOL member, you send an e-mail to abuse@aol.com. To report problems caused by a customer of xyz.com, you send an e-mail to abuse@xyz.com, etc. You are doing these companies a favor by letting them know about the inappropriate behavior by one of their customers. Most Internet service providers are responsible citizens of the online world and do care about the use of their systems. Only a few rogue Internet service providers will tolerate spam mail. There are a number of organizations that promote "removal lists." In theory, you tell one of these companies that you don't want to receive such junk, and they, in turn, will notify the spam mailers to remove your e-mail address from their lists. However, experience has shown that these removal lists are not very effective. Many spam mailers pay no attention to them. Adding your name to a removal list may reduce the amount of such mail you receive by a bit; it certainly doesn't hurt to try. But don't get your hopes up. I bet you will still receive a lot of spam mail, even after listing yourself on the removal list. You should never, ever reply to a spam message. If you send a reply, you are simply confirming that your e-mail address is valid and that someone reads messages at that address. The spammers will then send more advertisements to you, not less! The advertisements for the CD-ROM disks containing e-mail addresses often claim to be "verified addresses." By replying to a spam message, you are verifying that your e-mail address is a good one, thus insuring that you will receive future junk mailings. Finally, the best cure is the simplest: press the delete button in your e-mail program and then move on. Advise all your friends to do the same. The only reason that spam mail exists is because it is profitable. If an educated population stops buying products from these sleazy outfits, the spam mailers will eventually slither away. A lack of orders will translate into no profits for the spammers. Without profits, they will go away and find other avenues for their advertising. Never, ever buy anything from a spam e-mail message! Even if it is a product that interests you, find a more reputable merchant to do business with. There are lots of merchants available, so why do business with one who uses such poor taste in advertising techniques? The biggest threat that spam mailers face is an educated population. Think about it. Then tell your friends.