Re: [cobalt-users] Spam

[Mailing List Account <listmail@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:

> Same here, I have a very exposed email address that
> has been victim to spam for quite some time, it is a
> webmaster@ address. I am getting a lot of messages
> claiming a mail server intercepted a virus sent from
> that address. I am on a RedHat 9 workstation and that
> address forwards to my mailbox. All mail stays on the
> server using IMAP. So, I guess there is no way to stop
> this thing from using our email address? So far, no
> intercept messages have come back from anyone I know.

	It helps if you understand how that email address of your's is
being obtained. In a nutshell, once the virus gets itself installed on
someone's computer it scans that computer looking for email addresses.
Those that it finds are used in its efforts to propagate itself. Thus,
while its a bit more complex than this, essentially every infected
computer which you have ever sent email to and/or from which email has
been sent to you from and/or on which a web page or some such thing that
your email address is on is potentially a source of the spam.

	I didn't want to write a book so the above is not technically
correct but its close enough for Government work ;-) Most of the major
security sites have a detailed explanation of how this all actually
happens so if you are interested in further a bit Googling should prove to
be enlightening.

	Best Regards,

	Brent Sims