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General Chat => Help! => Topic started by: Buddy on 12 August, 2009, 11:30:11 AM

Title: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Buddy on 12 August, 2009, 11:30:11 AM
Can e-mails be traced back to the sender?

i.e. is it possible to trace a spam email (or instance) back to who sent it?

Cheers!
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Banners on 12 August, 2009, 11:37:37 AM
You can look at the message header to see lots of route information, but pro spammers will spoof this or cover their tracks such as to make the info useless.

M@
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Tweak72 on 12 August, 2009, 11:47:27 AM
what is Spoof?
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Bouwel on 12 August, 2009, 11:50:46 AM
Spoof=false information that seems real. Usually inserted by spammers to make the mail servers think it's a genuine mail header when it isn't.

-Bouwel-
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: I, Cosh on 12 August, 2009, 11:51:43 AM
Quote from: Tweak72 on 12 August, 2009, 11:47:27 AM
what is Spoof?
The practice of substituting a fake e-mail address in the "From" field for the actual sender. Very simple as the header is simply a few lines of text which can be easily manipulated. It's why your hotmail junk folder is frequently full of crap purporting to be from your own address.
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Tweak72 on 12 August, 2009, 11:53:01 AM
Thanks guys. I did wonder how I was sending all that spam.
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Buddy on 12 August, 2009, 12:53:39 PM
And what if it's not really spam but from a source you just don't know?
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Banners on 12 August, 2009, 01:04:12 PM
Quote from: Buddy
And what if it's not really spam but from a source you just don't know?

If it's a legitimate email you can see the mail server it's come from and each step of the path it has taken to get to you. In Thunderbird, open the message and select View > Message Source. In Outlook Express, open a message and select File > Properties. Then look at the Details tab.

If you have a concern, can you you be more specific?

M@
Title: Re: Computer tech assistance required.
Post by: Buddy on 12 August, 2009, 02:22:14 PM
Nothing specific matt, just wonderin if emails could be traced back to the source.

I might one day want to send hate mail (and a turd in the post maybe!) to an artist. (that's a joke by the way)