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Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Unwanted crap msgs

To: Al Kozakiewicz <akozak@hourglass.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Unwanted crap msgs
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:33:44 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Actually, it is true ... all of it.  Reread my post and you'll see that 
I said that if the spam messages are sent to other addresses from your 
address book it is likely that your computer was hacked.

a.  "Likely" means probably, not exclusively

b.  Not only do you (as a potential spammer) know that I subscribe to 
TowerTalk and that the list will accept a message from me, you know a 
whole bunch of other people from which TowerTalk will accept a message.  
Why would you stop at spoofing messages only from me when you could be 
doing the same thing from several dozen other subscriber addresses that 
have currently posted a message?   They wouldn't have to be the same 
message ... it would be simple to send different messages purporting to 
come from different people.  That doesn't happen , though.  Why??  The 
simple answer is that that isn't how it is general done ... see item a.) 
above.   If it were, we'd be getting tons of phony emails supposedly 
from lots of subscribers of the various lists that we post to.  Instead, 
spammers tend to (see again item a.) above)  rely on hacking a computer 
and accessing the address book to get exposure to the broadest 
demographics possible.

I'll bet that almost every spam message sent to TowerTalk was also sent 
to other addresses from the affected person, or at least similar 
messages sent at the same time.

All that being said, I have a non-ham related web site with a unique 
email address included on one pf the pages.  About once every two years 
I'll see a flurry of bounced spam emails spoofed from that address, and 
it has nothing to do with my computer being hacked. Somebody simply 
mined that email address and spoofed it.

Dave   AB7E




On 3/31/2012 2:24 PM, Al Kozakiewicz wrote:
> Actually, that's not true.  As a subscriber to tower talk, I now know David 
> Gilbert's email address and that towertalk@contesting.com will accept a 
> message purporting to be from him.  Armed with that knowledge and an ISP that 
> doesn't care if I operate an SMTP server, I can send email to everyone who 
> subscribes to this list without ever accessing your computer.  I don't need 
> to have access to your address book, only copies emails you've sent or have 
> been sent to you.  And I can get them legitimately.
>
> Al
> AB2ZY
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com 
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of David Gilbert
> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:17 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Unwanted crap msgs
>
>
> True.  It does not require that your computer be hacked, although it likely 
> was if the spam messages get sent to addresses in your address book.
>
> 73,
> Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
> On 3/31/2012 1:06 PM, HansLG@aol.com wrote:
>> The sad thing is that "they" only have to know your e-mail address to
>> make the spams. "They" can fake it all in their own server. You will
>> only know you  were hit if some of the e-mails come in return.
>>
>> Hans - N2JFS
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________
>>    From: bmarx@bellsouth.net
>> To: towertalk@contesting.com
>> Sent: 3/29/2012  12:52:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
>> Subj: Re: [TowerTalk] Unwanted crap  msgs
>>
>>
>> Phishing attempts that are successful, such as this one, are  usually
>> easily remedied, by changing the email password. That is if it  does
>> happen to you.
>> Bill Marx W2CQ
>>
>>
>>
>> On 3/29/2012 10:16  AM, Al Kozakiewicz wrote:
>>> I doubt it was you at all.  I looked at  the original message header
>>> and
>> it came from a yahoo server, not  sbcglobal.
>>> Unless contesting.com takes some measure to  validate that messages
>> actually originate from a server authorized to send on  behalf of a
>> domain, anyone with a PC on the internet can install an SMTP  server
>> and send email to tower talk appearing to be from Jim  McLaughlin.
>>> Al
>>> AB2ZY
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