Interesting email question 1

[jisoo22]

Hello all,

I'm going to pose a rather interesting question that one of my buddies tossed to me and suffice to say, I was pretty stumped. Here's the scenario/brainteaser:

Say a small web app was produced to take in information and send it out by email through your web browser via a mail server likc sendmail or qmail (and not through a client like Outlook). Theoretically you can put anything you want into the header, from:, and reply-to: fields. My question is, can you put in a different email address (i.e. joe@aol.com) for the from: and reply-to: fields and send out those emails from a different IP (or different mail server like Earthlink)? I believe that its possible but not without being tracked and stuck onto list-servs where they could use your own mail server or relay as a conduit to throw spam mail out into the world, thereby creating a problem for you and/or your ISP. Would it be possible to send email that hides your identity that way without being targeted by others for spam purposes?

Have fun =)
Jisoo22

 

[jmatt]

Here is my file on the subject .

Anonymous email

In Outlook Express .

Open Outlook Express....... go up to tools.....accounts
Highlight your email.....then choose properties....and change your name under User Information.

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Go to the Options/Personal Profile/and just put down what you want your first and last name to
be . I personally have mine set to first name: M.A. last nam X. . My friends and family all use
aliases that we all know because of the amount of spam out there, if someone gets an email from
one of us and it uses our "real" first and last name, there's something wrong with it . Just
make sure that you notify everyone that you email that you are making an online alias (like a
trucker) , and what it will be , so that when they get an email , they know it's from you .

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http://email.about.com/library/weekly/aa031300c.htm

If you want to combine telling neither your true name nor your "true" email address with still
being able to receive replies, you can create a new, "anonymous" email account. There are two
ways to accomplish this: a simple one and a not-so-simple one.

The simple way probably is the better.

Email Alias
Many ISPs allow their customers to set up email aliases. An alias is nothing more than a
different address for the same mailbox. Every message sent to the alias address will go to the
main mailbox.

So, if you want to send a message anonymously, create a new email alias for your mailbox, state
it as your email address in the From: field (and probably add a fancy name).

Free Email
Another way to create a new email account is to sign up for one of the many free Web-based
email services. Sending email from this new address you can be almost whoever you want to be
(as far as your personality stretches -- this may be farther than you think).

Limited Anonymity
Of course, both ways of getting a new email account where nobody would know it is you who is
using it offer only limited anonymity. Your ISP and the provider of the free email service do
know you and in case of a court order have to know you.

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http://www.squirrelmail.org/

http://java.sun.com/products/javamail/Third_Party.html

http://www.horde.org/imp/

http://ractive.ch/popper/index.php

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http://www.ebizidea.com/emailencoder.html

One way that spammers gather email addresses is by using email collector programs - "spambots".
These robots scan the Web and grab all the email addresses out of every site they visit. If you
use links on your site, if you post your own or other people's email addresses (for example, on
your Testimonials, Feedback pages, etc.), you (and your customers) have a great chance to be
spammed and spammed again. Em@ilEncoder allows to keep email addresses on your site out of the
hands of spammers. Encoded email does not looks like an email address for spammer's tools, and
they can't extract it from your pages. Encoded tags still working correctly, and visitors can
send you emails by clicking on the link. (VJ)

----------------------------------------

http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?page=1&cat=24

ASS Maker (Anti-Spam Script Maker)
Are you tired of Spam? Do you own a Home Page with your or your company E-mail address listed
anywhere in it? Then ASS Maker can help you. ASS Maker writes for you a Java Script that you can
Copy and Paste into your Home Page in the place of the 'mailto:' tags. ASS Maker disguises the
'mailto:' tags and your address in several parameters of a Java Script E-mail link. When a
visitor of your Home Page clicks that link, the script launches the visitor default E-mail
program with your original address in the 'To:' field, but the spammers bots and spiders can't
see it!

---------------------------------------------

http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?page=2&cat=24

Fake E-Mail Creator
It seems like every day we get annoying e-mails offering porn, get rich quick schemes, or
illegal solicitations. We didn't ask for this junk. Unethical people extracted your e-mail
address from the Internet by using programs known as "spambots." Such applications automatically
surf web page after web page harvesting as many e-mail addresses as they can find. The people
collecting e-mail addresses en masse don't care who the addresses belong to. They just want to
make money any way they can. If their porn ads end up in the e-mail box of a 10-year-old or a
nun or a grandfather, they don't care. As long as they can make sales, they don't worry about
what eyes fall upon their disgusting drivel. It's time to fight back! With Fake E-Mail Creator,
you can randomly generate thousands of bogus names and e-mail addresses on an HTML page.
Spambots will not be able to tell them from real e-mail addresses. The more such poison
addresses are posted on the Internet, the more difficult it will be for spammers to harvest
useful e-mail lists. The value of spambots will decline.

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http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?page=5&cat=24

Outlook Spam tool
Outlook Spam Tool is a small utility which addresses some of the shortcomings of Microsoft
Exchange/Outlook when dealing with unwanted junk mail. Outlook Spam tool is for you if: You are
a user of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2002 You wish to be notified when new mail arrives You
do NOT wish to be notified when junk mail arrives Unfortunately, Microsoft Exchange / Outlook
will notify you of incoming mail, regardless of content or how your filters are configured. Even
though you may be filtering junk mail to a special folder, such as a "spam" or "junk mail"
folder, Outlook will still notify you that you have mail. Most people don't want to be notified
when they receive junk mail

 

[jisoo22]

Thanks for the info, but it doesn't completely answer my question. The problem is that once you send out your email, it can be traced back to you or your ISP via IP addresses (not just by your name or email address). Is there any way to sort of "cover your tracks" so to speak in terms of those IP addresses? Without having to resort to "alias" emails or such since spam will still find you.

Thanks,
Jisoo22

 

[gigahertz]

http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers/headers.html

 

[ChrisAC]

This is exactly why spammers look for open mail relays, to hide where the mail is actually coming from. The headers on the e-mail would only have the servers addresses on, not the original senders address. It would be then up to the mail server admin to look at the mail logs and identify the initial connection from client to server.

Chris.


**********************
Chris Andrew, CCNA, CCSA
chris@iproute.co.uk
**********************