Thanks to all who responded. I was pretty certain I was secure and have just
reconfirmed it with a second virus scan and a test of my Firewall. I was
suspicious as the people I was supposed to have sent to did not exist in my
Address Book and the attachments also did not exist on my PC.
But it does mean that someone I emailed recently (possibly someone on this
list, although I may have sent mail to others and not recorded the fact) has
a virus - so if you are not running a scanner please do so. (I run AVG which
is free for personal use!)
From: "Tim Murphy" <>
To: "Dave Torr" <>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>,<>,
<>
Subject: RE: [BIRDING-AUS] Virus????
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 08:43:13 +1000
Not to worry - many viruses spoof the senders address (The MAIL FROM field)
by using a random name on the infected machine. Presumably they have an
email you wrote to Birding-aus or some other one. It happens to me quite
often. Still, I often run a virus scan and get an updated file, just in
case.
When a message is submitted to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
server it is tagged with a reverse-path. The reverse-path is specified by
the sending application with the MAIL FROM: command as outlined in the
SMTP
RFC-821. (Request for Comment 921) The reverse-path is the path the the
server should use to communicate with the original sender of the message,
and therefore the reverse-path is typically the e-mail address of the
sender (the from address).
The SMTP sever stores the reverse-path internally, not in the actual
message, and forwards it with the message through any relay servers as
necessary until the
message encounters an error or reaches its destination. Since the
return-path is not recorded in the actual message it is typical to add a
From: header to the e-mail message which contains the address of the
sender
and an optional friendly name. i.e. "Joe Sender" <>.
Mail readers use the From: header to display who a message is from.
Obsesive techos might like to look at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc821.html
best regards
Tim Murphy
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Dave Torr
Sent: Monday, 17 May 2004 7:32 AM
To: ; ;
; ; ;
; ;
; ; ;
; ;
; ;
; ; ;
;
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Virus????
I have had a couple of strange messages from Hotmail telling me that I have
sent out mail with a virus on it. I am a little suspicious as:
1 - My virus checker is updated daily and I have no viruses on the PC.
2 - I also have a firewall which should prevent anyone "hacking" into the
PC
remotely.
3 - The people it claims I sent the mail to I have never heard of and the
attachments I am, supposed to have sent do not exist on my PC. My suspicion
is that someone has "hijacked" my Hotmail account in some way and is
sending
messages supposedly from me.
However - until I get to the bottom of this I suggest you treat any recent
mail from me as suspicious and make sure you run a virus checker.
I Am sorry for this - as I said my precautions are all as good as I can
make
them and I really do not know what is happening here.
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Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
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birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
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birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
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