[tri-med] Re: problems with spam

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jocelyn"
>> BUT that still doesn't explain to me how come
> tpg (my server) sends me stuff not addressed to me??????

Because people make money out of this. They actually have computer 
programmes that do this but its easier if I explain it as a person.

Some turkey has sat down with a telephone book and made a list of all the 
surnames. Yours would have been there as its not a unique surname. Then he 
sat there and made up all the variations that he could think of that people 
might use as email addresses eg asmith, bsmith, csmith, smithc etc etc.

After he did that he got a list of ISP's - and then he added the names with 
the ISPS and he has a zillion addresses eg asmith@ tpg, asmith@ telstra, 
asmith@ aol etc etc. Next he sends an email to each of those addresses. If 
its a legitimate address it will get through or get caught in a spam filter 
if you are lucky and he knows that its a vaild address. If its not a 
legitimate address he will get a bounce. A bounce usually means that he 
removes the email address from his list.

Next he puts these zillion addresses in a disk and he sells them. All the 
silly spammers buy the disks (I get spam offering to sell them to me all the 
time) and then use the addresses to send the spam.

How you get them when they arent addressed to you? Well the turkey put all 
the addresses he created on the computer disk in folders. A bit like a 
filing cabinet. The folder contained "similar addresses eg the first name in 
the folder might be Knowles and it contains all the names up to Kzar. The 
spammer didn't even have to type in the addresses or cut and paste. He 
simply attached the folder (thats the unknown address you see). All the 
other zillion similar addresses go into the blind cc list so you cant see 
them. Your address would be one of them., you just cant see it because its 
in the blind cc.

A lot of spam programmes classify any email that has multiple addresses in 
the blind cc as spam. Thats how some of our list mails can get lost in spam 
filters. The list uses similar technology to manage the addresses of 
everyone on the list. Spam programmes detect that the email went to multiple 
recipients and so cans it as spam even though its not.

Does that help explain it?

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                                            -- Josh Billings

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
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