>How in heaven's name do I get this stopped without setting myself up more problems by recognizing myself as a spammer? Apart from anything else, this is clearly of interest to the list as it is targeting MSO! As far as I know, there's nothing you can really do about anyone attempting to SPOOF your email. It's been happening to me for years...and to Linda, I know, too. I attempted to use a certificate with my email to assure folks it was really from me, but that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. This article will chronicle my problem with spoofing and certificates, if you're interested in reading it: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=332 And note that that was March/2004...this crap has been going on for a long time. These are the same problems so many reputable banking orgs are having with those trying to swipe your info through phishing. They make the email APPEAR to come from banks. Here's an article I wrote on that part of the problem, too...if you want to see how wide spread spoofing is. http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=352 And yes, you can eventually end up on a spammer list, which does suck. And it's hard to get off the list. Sadly, it's pretty much of a losing battle, as far as I know. Even large companies have trouble tracking and legally dealing with spammers who have used their names in vain. Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified Editor/TechTrax Ezine Help Katrina's Homeless Animals: http://www.mousetrax.com/pets.html Free Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Anne Robson Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 4:38 AM To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mso] My email account being cloned - ? OT I've just come back from a week's long overdue holiday to find an email purporting to be from my own work email account, sent to me, thus bypassing all my spam settings very successfully. I've forwarded it below - apologies for the length of the post especially for anybody reading it on digest mode and also to Linda if this is deemed to be off-topic. How in heaven's name do I get this stopped without setting myself up more problems by recognising myself as a spammer? Apart from anything else, this is clearly of interest to the list as it is targeting MSO! Maybe there is some convoluted method I can use to get round this one but it strikes me as being a very sinister development and any hints you can offer for me to stop this recurring would be hugely appreciated. BTW message headers are available for analysis. Anne -----Original Message----- From: {my work email account} Sent: 21 September 2005 12:25 To: {my work email account} Subject: BREAKING NEWS: Analysts Find New Microsft Office 12 a Waste of Money Attention Business Owner: ANALYSTS FIND NEW [ Microsoft Office 12 ] TO BE AN UNNEEDED PURCHASE [ Extremely Complicated ] TO RE-LEARN AND SUGGEST KEEPING OLD VERSION. September, 20th, 2005 - 4:00AM PDT By Ina Fried / Staff Writer, CNET News.com Unfortunately, the company was a little too successful at making its innovations unobtrusive. In user testing, Microsoft found that nine out of every 10 features that customers wanted to see added to Office were already in the program. "They simply don't know it's there," Chris Capossela, a Microsoft vice president, told a developer crowd last week. "It's just too hard to find it." "Some very small percentage of people are going to react overwhelmingly negative," Sinofsky said in an interview. "I'm prepared for that." But, he warned, Microsoft may still face a tough sell. "Microsoft has to convince (corporate customers) not only that the new version is better, but also that there is not a significant amount of retraining that is going to be required for users." FULL ARTICLE AT: http://news.com.com/Office+12+makeover+takes+on+feature+creep/2100-1012_3- 5873597.html?tag=st.num ----- ---- --- -- - - MICROSOFT: Self-Admitted World's Largest & Greatest Spammer ----- ---- --- -- - - " I'm with one of the greatest, most hated institutional "spammers" around. We are a spamhouse. Doesn't matter that we're Microsoft. Our legitimate, unsolicited email is still just spam. " - Mike Lyman - MICROSOFT HEAD EMAIL ABUSE ADMINISTRATOR ABOVE STATEMENT ARCHIVED & COMMENTED ON AT: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?S1=spam-l&X=- 1. Under Search for type: "We are a spamhaus." 2. Under Search for type: "most hated institutional" ----- ---- --- -- - - " Businesses ought to be able to send unsolicited e-mail to people even if they are unsure if they have a pre-existing business relationship with them. " - Ryan Hamlin - MICROSOFT CHIEF COUNSEL - August 22nd, 2005 ABOVE STATEMENT ARCHIVED & COMMENTED ON AT: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3384447a28,00.html http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/08/22/1717258.shtml?tid=111&tid=109 ----- ---- --- -- - - - [ Public Service Announcement Brought To You By S P A M I S ] - [ Strategic Partnership Against Microsoft Illegal Spam ] ----- ---- --- -- - - [ S P A M I S NOTIFICATION ]: Thanks to Individual and Server Contributions, S P A M I S is Now "FULLY READY" to Begin Increasing Microsoft Public Service Announcement Emails to 20 Times the Amount of Internet Email Users by 25 Times the Current Sending Rate & Speed When a Certain Activity Transpires to "ANY" Past, Present or Future S P A M I S Member(s) and/or "ANY" S P A M I S Affiliate(s). [ CURRENTLY IN WAITING FOR THIS ACTIVITY TO TRANSPIRE TO BEGIN ] [ S P A M I S / PO Box 1259 , Seattle , WA 98101 - USA ] ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. 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This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************