Linux Format forums

godofthedevil · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject:

ive tried emailing isps before but the trouble is that some ips are from places that dont speak or understand english for they know or care your offering them a naked woman and to assissinate their leader and help the freedom fighters.

the spam for software i get is in my yahoo box and it says what is 0em (zero em) and whats it about from about 20 diffrent email addresses. but if i took the time to look at the headers they would come more or less from the same geographic locatation
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TheDoctor · LXF regular Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 pm Posts: 325

CJLL · LXF regular Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:22 pm Posts: 193

TheDoctor · LXF regular Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 pm Posts: 325

CJLL, that's interesting. It explains some puzzles I've had about the headers in spam I've received. They've not made sense, and your explanation shows how this can happen.

Of course, our explanations are not mutually exclusive, although I can see how a serious spammer could cover his/her tracks much more thoroughly by your method.

nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:45 am Post subject:

Limnits on the lengths of headers mean Bcc: can only be used to send to a fairly small number of addresses, whereas listing then in the SMTP envelope is limited only by the mail server (some have limits to prevent their being used for spam). Spam is basically mailing lists without you needing to take the trouble to subscribe, the same distribution methods are used for both.
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TheDoctor · LXF regular Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 pm Posts: 325

nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:29 am Post subject:

The techniques used are somewhat different in that case. Try replying to a few phishing mails for a more compatible form of mugging...
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CJLL · LXF regular Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:22 pm Posts: 193

nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:11 pm Post subject:

I know, I was merely pointing out why it is not suitable for sending out mass mailings.
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Blåtann · Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2006 12:07 pm Posts: 15

I may flag something aready written in this thread but has anyone mentioned viruses?
As a lot of modern viruses is designed to make zobies out of pc´s so that they can be abused by some hacker.

I once read something on the net about a hacker renting out hes botnet of about 100.000 pc´s (zombies) for about $100.-/hour
A spammer will gladly pay to use these machines as a cluster of spam machines.

Thereby there is actualy a risk sending an email to a friend with a possible vulnerable machine.
If the machine is compromised your message may be picked up and inkluded in a spammers list.

Acording to "How stuff works" the mail lists is sold on cd´s as "spam free" addresses, that is people that have agreed to receive spam(!)

It does not matter how good you hide your address, the virus or spyware compromised pc´s of your friends will give it away.

Viruses or spyware often runs it´s own smpt server and may send messages in the background.
Thereby, neither IP or the senders address is caracteristic of a spam message.