SPAM problem

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi all,

I need your help.
As you know I have pswebm<funnyAhere;)>seznam.cz mail account, too.
Today I received following message:


Your message to: pswebmaster@berryplastics.com
was blocked by our Spam Filter. The email you sent with the following subject has NOT BEEN DELIVERED:

Subject: Dear pswebmaster@berryplastics.com May 87% 0FF

If you consider this to be in error, please contact the Berry Plastics
IT Help Desk at (812) 306-2411



Reporting-MTA: dns; postmaster.berryplastics.com
Received-From-MTA: smtp; postmaster.berryplastics.com ([127.0.0.1])
Arrival-Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 04:36:34 -0500 (CDT)
Content-Type: text/plain

Final-Recipient: rfc822; pswebmaster@berryplastics.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.7.1
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Message content rejected, UBE, id=13727-01-7
Last-Attempt-Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 04:36:34 -0500 (CDT)



Received: from ws48 (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by postmaster.berryplastics.com (Spam Firewall) with SMTP id 5194736087E
for <pswebmaster@berryplastics.com>; Thu, 15 May 2008 04:36:33 -0500 (CDT)
Received: from ws48 (mail.avsystems.ru [212.5.178.186]) by postmaster.berryplastics.com with SMTP id hlgmIHg1jTRSyRDd for <pswebmaster@berryplastics.com>; Thu, 15 May 2008 04:36:33 -0500 (CDT)
Content-Return: allowed
X-Mailer: CME-V6.5.4.3; MSN
Message-Id: <20080515043657.11395.qmail@ws48>
To: <pswebmaster@berryplastics.com>
Subject: Dear pswebmaster@berryplastics.com May 87% 0FF
From: VIAGRA Ž Official Site <pswebmaster@berryplastics.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 04:36:33 -0500 (CDT)



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.16/1433 - Release Date: 14. 5. 2008 16:44



Does it mean somebody tried to send spam using my email address or is it a trap?
If it is the first one I think I should delete this account?


Thanks,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

SPAM is really a big problem.

Anyhow, yes. Spammers send mails using millions of different emails as sender.

The sad story is that many (so called) IT people configure email server to reply to such mails so you (the innocent people) get "spammed" by a mail server that thing to offer a service replying to sender.
The same happen to emails sent by virus. There are many virus that spread themself via mails using the emails it found on the infected PC. Again the sad story is that antivirus software installed on mail servers reply to those mails telling "attention, there was a virus in a mail you sent us"

In the company I work for, we get around 4000/5000 spam emails per day (more than 95% blocked). Imagine if we have to reply to all sender (usually fake emails) telling them: "hey, you sent us a spam email". We would double or more our traffic.

So, there is 0% you can do on that. The only solution is to change the SMTP protocol to something with more power and security.

Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks Eros,

I should be also more careful with posting my address on the net I think :(


Thanks,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Well, consider also how free web mail providers get their gains.
They can get DB of millions of real and used emails. Many free web hosting sell those databases to 3rd party companies.
So every time you send a mail to friends that have free mail hosting provider, you are giving out your email.

Also mails travels many networks so, ... imagine how many hands can be over your email.

[Petr Schreiber]

That does not sound optimistic :)

The seznam.cz is free email hosting + search engine, but it includes advertisement in the email online interface, which is the main income for them I think. At least I did not found anything suspicious in EULA.


Petr

[ErosOlmi]

Yes, quite pessimistic, I know.
But because stats say that more than 75% of all mails are Spam mails, there must be something working bad.

Someone say: "thinking bad things is a sin but ... sometimes you got it" ;)