Greetings! 

 

Chances are that you’re here because you received some unsolicited commercial email (the polite words for SPAM) with a return address of <some_garbage>@victorfreyer.com.

 

You have my apologies.

 

Judging from the number of bounced messages I get every day, there must be a lot of junk going out that bears my return address.  Most of it appears to be sourced from hijacked/zombie computers in the Far East.

 

For example, headers of an email that bounced back to me:

 

Return-Path: <jozzi.APC@victorfreyer.com>

Received: from ctmail.com (10.9.0.11) by C9mailgw05.amadis.com (NPlex 6.5.029)

        id 42AB030500C0466D; Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:27:22 -0700

Message-ID: <42AB030500C0466D@C9mailgw05.amadis.com> (added by postmaster@mail2world.com)

X-Commtouch-Loop:3

Received: FROM [218.9.108.166] By c9diamond06.diamond.amadis.com ; Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:27:10 -0800

Received: from coarsen.freudlemos.com (218.9.108.166)

          by 218.9.108.166 (lousy v3.95) with SMTP

          id <412756ba6rsjgi>; Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:18:12 +0500

Reply-To: "schruefer borek" <NROCVGRCD@freudlemos.com>

From: "schruefer borek" <NROCVGRCD@freudlemos.com>

To: (removed by me – an address at mail2freedom.com)

Cc: (removed by me – multiple addresses at mail2freedom.com)

Subject: Account 0452. Please Read

Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:21:12 -0400

 

indicate that it originated from IP address 218.9.108.166, which is administered at Beijing, China.  There is no jozzi.APC in my domain, and probably there isn’t a Schruefer Borek with an email address of NROCVGRCD at freudlemos.com.

 

I don’t know who’s more frustrated, you or me.

 

Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do to make it stop.  Yet.

 

I have filed for a US trademark on “victorfreyer.com”.  When that is complete, I will have grounds for legal action in the US and other GATT signatory nations.  Wish me luck.

 

For reference, it’s easy to send yourself an email that appears to come from any return address you care to use.  Here’s an example:

 

telnet <your SMTP server> 25

HELO iambogus.whitehouse.gov

MAIL FROM: george_w_bush@whitehouse.gov

RCPT TO: <your email address>

DATA

The Downing Street memo makes it clear that it was always my intention to invade Iraq

 

I apologize for misleading the American people and the citizens of the world.  My resignation is effective at the end of this month. 

 

You will be in capable hands with Mr. Cheney.

 

Sincerely,

G. Bush

.

QUIT

 

 

With a little programming and a list of potential email addresses, a spammer can send out hundreds, perhaps thousands of these little gems every minute.

 

Do your part to protect yourself.  Never respond to spam, and never, NEVER, engage in a financial transaction based on unsolicited email.