OT: Spam is puzzling me again...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...Is it possible to spoof the 'To:' line of a spam? Because I just realized that a spam I recieved doesn't appear to have been sent to me e-mail address.

[Randallw]

I believe it possible to hide the CC: line of an email so that everyone you send it to doesn't learn other peoples addresses. I reckon it's standard for newsletters. By hiding the CC: line the spammers can possibly make you think they really are sending something personal to you without you seeing they sent it to a million other people.

[capnq]

If your address is in the BCC: field, does it appear anywhere in the e-mail?

I have a friend who routinely forwards things to a list of people which just displays "Undisclosed Recipients" in the To: field.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Thanks, that explains it.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I just recieved a peculiar spam...

missionary puddingstone flemish hansen thanksgiving spiky
ballad stun esquire
tendency dial vis youngstown thanksgiving demit
arlington lightning mccracken demit genitive


ackley coplanar neat individual thanksgiving
fulsome mccracken
thanksgiving flemish vis bonneville
sputter missionary individual
bonneville renounce sewage bothersome thicket confrere vis ballad

No attachments, no links, just random text.

I dunno, maybe they expect me to reply?

[Randallw]

do you have an email program/site that deletes suspicious attachments?

A few months ago I got spam that went like this.

"Dear sir,

I am sure you would like to talk with someone you can trust. To make it easier why don't you turn off your virus detector so we can converse more easily"

um yeah right

Not to sound rascist or anything but if they want to fool you they really shouldn't give their name as something like the honourable Richard Nbanga. If it sounds African then I don't want anything to do with it.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Not unless Thunderbird or my internet service does.

That might present a difficulty if you know someone from Africa.

[Jack Simth]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
...Is it possible to spoof the 'To:' line of a spam? Because I just realized that a spam I recieved doesn't appear to have been sent to me e-mail address.

Yes, easily. There's a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) line (usually hidden until you change your e-mail client's options) that sends the e-mail to people without mentioning where it's going.

narf poit chez BOOM said:
I just recieved a peculiar spam...

No attachments, no links, just random text.

I dunno, maybe they expect me to reply?

They're fishing for valid e-mail addresses to send actual spam. The random text is to get around certain types of spam filters. What they're doing is sending out e-mails to check for bounces. If it doesn't bounce with "User Unknown" or similar, it's a valid e-mail address.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Thanks, that makes sense and is what I was sorta thinking.

[Xrati]

Don't EVER send an "opt-out" reply unless it's to a known emailer. That's another ploy they use to verify your a legit email address.