Odd, strange e-mail messages?

[kbeartx]

The MO of many viruses / worms is to access data from the addessbook of the infected PC, inserting random addresses into both the From and To address fields.

You ought to be able to look at the header data in these msgs to determine unambiguously which email account they are being sent to.

B/c current email protocol allows for forged [spoofed] data to be included unquestioningly, it's diffficult or impossible to trace msgs back to their actual sender.

 - KB

[Mayo]

The problem is that it could be multiple "leaks" and it would be a lot of trouble to track them down and even more trouble to "fix" the problem at the other end.

Sounds to me like the first thing to do is drop the Adelphia account altogether and see what happens... Do you really need the web mail access that Adelphia offers? If you do, does one of your other e-mail accounts offer a web mail alternative?  Do you use multiple e-mail addresses with your family and friends?  Why not boil it down to one address just for family and friends? Use another for business. Since most e-mail accounts allow for multiple e-mail addresses you won't need three separate e-mail accounts.

BTW, terminology-wise your .Mac account doesn't "grab" the e-mail from your other accounts, you must have those accounts configured to "forward" mail to .Mac. You can also elect to have Mail check each e-mail account separately (I'm assuming that Mail can do this...I use Eudora.)

The less forwarding you do and using the minimum number of e-mail accounts to meet your needs translates to headers that are less complicated to decipher.  You can then use the filtering built-in to your e-mail program to funnel messages into appropriate mailboxes so that everything doesn't wind up in your "In" box.

In my case I currently have nine e-mail addresses at Pobox.com that are forwarded to my cable ISP e-mail account.  Eudora checks that e-mail account and filters my mail into 29 mailboxes I have created. I don't receive e-mail at all 29 boxes every day, but by sorting my mail using Eudora's filters I can instantly see where the e-mail is coming from and decide what I should deal with now and what I can save for later. I also created a "Replies Needed" mailbox where I transfer messages that don't require an immdeiate response.

For example, e-mail notices of topics I subscribe to at TS are placed in the TechSurvivors mailbox in my "Mailing Lists" e-mail folder. Since I have Eudora set to indicate mailboxes with new mail in BOLD letters, it takes a second to see when something new has arrived.  If I wanted to, I could have Eudora open the mailbox or the individual messages automatically. (I generally use that feature when working on an important project or I am involved in an e-mail "conversation" with someone.)

I am beginning to plan a trip to Europe this fall.  I created a "Europe 2006" mail folder and I will create a temporary "Europe 2006" e-mail address to make filtering messages easier. All e-mail communications relating to our trip will wind-up in the "Europe 2006" folder, making it a snap to keep track of plane and hotel reservations, among other things. There is a nine-hour difference between the U.S. west coast and western Europe, so keeping track of the e-mail replies is easier this way. I will know where to find travel-related e-mails and just before I leave I will print copies of confirmation e-mails to take with us on the trip.

It might sound complicated, but it only takes a moment to set-up mailboxes and filters and it makes managing e-mail a LOT simpler.

[D76]

QUOTE(jcarter @ May 27 2006, 10:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, this is working, just set up the filters and have not gotten any more for a good while!

Terrific! I should have mentioned that its easy to test the filter(s) by sending yourself an email with the offending phrase in the message body, so you don't have to wait hours to see if it works. F'rinstance:

The quick brown fox jumped over the permanent fatal error.

Or simply three words: permanent fatal errors.

I had tested it with my Mail app, and it didn't matter whether it was upper or lower case. But I made it the singular "error" so the phrase wouldn't slip past if it arrives with the  singular "error" instead of "errors." The singular covers both.

[jcarter]

Hi Mayo and KB, Your explanations sure are helping me understand this. I do try to funnel all my email into .mac, and I guess I can use their webmail too.
I dont have any business mail, as I am an old phart and long since retired, but this would be a good thing to do, to separate family, class, and regular mail.
And perhaps make a webshopping one too.
But at the moment, this stuff is not happening!  I think filtering out permanent fatal errors has really poured the insecticide onto this problem!
Ive got to turn in, as I did spend a lot of time playing in the dirt with grandson and buddies, and then my own messy flower planting project, and am really tired. but will be up early studying all this whole thread!
Thank you all, you are the Mac school of the century!
Jane

[krissel]

Jane, I just went through this thread and changed all references I could see of '@' in your mention of your email address to ' at ' so the robots that troll websites to accumulate these addresses won't add yours. I couldn't change the one in the image in the posts but those aren't automatically read by the bots.

In the future write out the email addresses or do something so they aren't seen as valid or you will be fighting much more spam than ever before.

[jcarter]

Ohmygoodness, I do that on our Yahoo classroom boards, but I never thought at all they would get into TS!  Thought that to see TS or anything on it, that we have to log in. Everything is so invasive nowadays.  Its just like Poison Ivy, Ive about given up trying to kill it in our neighbourhood.  Spam, Virus, what ever we could call this mailbox invasions, and stuff, its really bad. Thank you!
I will take Poison Ivy anytime!  I can spray that stuff dead.  Wont go into what we did to a carpenter ant nest today, just wish we could do the same to these mailbox invaders.
Jane

[Mayo]

That filter trick is slick.  Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

I haven't had to deal with much spam of late and the filters I made years ago don't see any use, so I'm a little rusty on the subject.

[antony]

QUOTE(jcarter @ May 28 2006, 07:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow,  Thank you!  I will set these filters up just as soon as I can, probably will set them up in both Apple Mail and my ISP, Adelphia.
Yes, this is the only time Ive ever seen the permanent fatal error thing anywhere.
Some of the emails look like this,

Gibberish, eh?
I wonder if somebody with in infected PC had my email address in their book, and thats what is happening?
Thanks again for the help, I am curious of how these things happen.  Darn glad we have Macs!
Jane

It looks like a spam without correctly encoded for its language. -> spam.

I won't recommend "bouncing" back. Most of them simply ignored your "bounce" as the sender's email address are usually fake.

To combat SPAM, you can simply forward the spam email to spam@uce.gov (detail at http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ ).
Or you can report it to http://www.spamcop.net/ , they will try their best to track down the IP address of the sender or ISP.

My two cents.

[jcarter]

Good morning everybody and thank you for the great help, I did not get even one single one of these messages this morning!
That Filter sure is slick.
Ive tried spamcop and also reporting to ftc.gov but nothing works there.

Got a new somewhat annoying problem, I dont know what I did to hide my Junk mailbox.
I need to get my Junk mailbox back where I want it in the line up of mailboxes.  
Here,
http://www.picturetrunk.com/uploads/2bd7964070.jpg
Ive tried dragging it back to where it was, by itself in plain sight.
Here is where it is hiding now,
http://www.picturetrunk.com/uploads/bf65708efb.jpg
And I tried to drag it back between Sent and Trash boxes, but it wont go.
In mail help, it said just to drag mailboxes where you want them to go.
Wont do it however.
I wonder what I did wrong to make it hide.
That would be all I need to do, just to get it back in the lineup.
So happy you showed me how to set up filters to get rid of all this bad spam.
Just worried that I might not be getting mail that should be going into Junk box, until I put whoever into my address book.
Thank you in advance again,
Jane

[D76]

QUOTE(jcarter @ May 28 2006, 10:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dont know what I did to hide my Junk mailbox.
I need to get my Junk mailbox back where I want it in the line up of mailboxes.

I tried moving the junk mailbox, but it keeps ending up inside other folders.

I discovered, though, that if you drag the junk folder to very bottom of the window, it will free itself from within all the other folders.

[jcarter]

I tried it, but it wont free up, still stuck inside that other folder, darn.
I will try again,,,,,,
Jane

[D76]

Try this workaround. Create a new folder under the iDisk folder. Now drag the junk folder into the new folder.

Now click the triangle on the new folder and slowly drag the junk folder down (try all the way to the bottom, again).

Otherwise, when still dragging slowly, a horizontal black line should appear between two other folders. When it does, release the junk folder. Don't forget t delete the extra folder you had created. You may have to tell the thing twice to delete it.

[jcarter]

Tried, it still wont let me separate any junk mail boxes.
1.3.11 (v622/624)  is my version of Mail, perhaps it is old enough that it is
a bit different.  Thus not as versitile?  I wonder if I upgraded to the latest version, if this would work.
Jane