What can I do about this? Is changing address the only option?Or is this just a new trick to reach out to people? If they set the address in the sent field and send it to a non existing address, then it maybe bypasses the spam filters...?
/Anders
SPAM idiots!
SPAM idiots!
Today I got an email with a delivery error. Seems someone ( http://www.aproximat.com ) has sent out viagra spam using MY email address as the return/sender address!!! What can I do about this? Is changing address the only option?
Or is this just a new trick to reach out to people? If they set the address in the sent field and send it to a non existing address, then it maybe bypasses the spam filters...?
/Anders
What can I do about this? Is changing address the only option?Or is this just a new trick to reach out to people? If they set the address in the sent field and send it to a non existing address, then it maybe bypasses the spam filters...?
/Anders
PRG Starter - a VICE helper / Vic Software (Boray Gammon, SD2IEC music player, Vic Disk Menu, Tribbles, Mega Omega, How Many 8K etc.)
Faking return addresses has been done for several years, so surprising you didn't encounter it until now. Viruses often do this, by finding your address book, sending itself to your friends using a random address from the address book or so.
In the case of virus, many email servers were set up with filters which would bounce back the mail to the "sender", resulting in people (me included) got drowned in messages like "Your mail contained virus XYZ and was not delivered", often including the virus itself as an attachment. Major anti-virus companies delivering server-side solutions were accused of spreading virus in this way.
Currently, you can at best set up a filter for bounced messages, or sort them by hand. Changing email address will probably be more trouble than receiving spam. You could get a PGP key or so to sign all your outgoing messages, so at least friends would know that a message from you which was not signed is forged. Preferrably SMTP e-mail as a protocol should be ejected and something better thought out should be implemented, but that is just a wish and it may lead to proprietary systems instead.
In the case of virus, many email servers were set up with filters which would bounce back the mail to the "sender", resulting in people (me included) got drowned in messages like "Your mail contained virus XYZ and was not delivered", often including the virus itself as an attachment. Major anti-virus companies delivering server-side solutions were accused of spreading virus in this way.
Currently, you can at best set up a filter for bounced messages, or sort them by hand. Changing email address will probably be more trouble than receiving spam. You could get a PGP key or so to sign all your outgoing messages, so at least friends would know that a message from you which was not signed is forged. Preferrably SMTP e-mail as a protocol should be ejected and something better thought out should be implemented, but that is just a wish and it may lead to proprietary systems instead.
Anders Carlsson
Thanks, that's reassuring! For a moment, I thought that this company had used my address as the return address for thousands of spam mail! 
/Anders
/Anders
PRG Starter - a VICE helper / Vic Software (Boray Gammon, SD2IEC music player, Vic Disk Menu, Tribbles, Mega Omega, How Many 8K etc.)