IF YOU HAVE BEEN SPAMMED...
Beginning yesterday morning, some spammers have been sending messages that use forged information to make it appear that I or someone at my domain is sending the garbage. If you have been spammed by "male enhancement" messages that appear to come from someone@bobschaefer.com, please know that I have nothing to do with those spammers or their junk. I am very sorry that you're receiving it, and am quite peeved that bobschaefer.com is being used as a cover this way.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing that I can do to stop it. The spam isn't coming from my domain, nor is it ever passing through it. Due to the way e-mail protocols are setup, anyone can make an e-mail appear to come from any domain they choose, just by changing a few quick settings in their e-mail client. That's what's happening here.
The scum in question has simply told his e-mail program to use gobbledygook addresses at bobschaefer.com (doesn't matter that they don't exist) as the FROM: and REPLY TO: addresses for their spam. A person looking closely at the e-mail headers can see right through this little trick, because the IP address of the sending computer (203.232.72.139, to use one example) doesn't match with my domain. But anyone who just scans the message might come to the conclusion that I'm behind the junk, which is part of how spammers do their slimy business.
Even better (from the scum's point of view), the angry replies, the "please remove me" notes, and all of the server messages reporting unknown e-mail addresses will come to me, rather than to the spammer.
Because these spammers use multiple domains, and are based outside of the US, the odds of actually nailing them are more or less zilch. And because the only computers I have any control over aren't involved in these messages at all, there's no way to stop spammers (or anyone else, for that matter) from spoofing bobschaefer.com this way. That's just the way the Internet works today - if you want to send an e-mail that appears to come from Dub@whitehouse.gov, it's painfully easy to do so. Just be advised that Dub has a much better team of spam hunters at his disposal than I do.
So if you've received a junk e-mail that looks like it might come from me, please know that I had nothing to do with it, that I'm as angry about it as you are, and if there were any way I could do anything about it, I promise you I'd zap the sleaze right off the Internet in a nanosecond.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing that I can do to stop it. The spam isn't coming from my domain, nor is it ever passing through it. Due to the way e-mail protocols are setup, anyone can make an e-mail appear to come from any domain they choose, just by changing a few quick settings in their e-mail client. That's what's happening here.
The scum in question has simply told his e-mail program to use gobbledygook addresses at bobschaefer.com (doesn't matter that they don't exist) as the FROM: and REPLY TO: addresses for their spam. A person looking closely at the e-mail headers can see right through this little trick, because the IP address of the sending computer (203.232.72.139, to use one example) doesn't match with my domain. But anyone who just scans the message might come to the conclusion that I'm behind the junk, which is part of how spammers do their slimy business.
Even better (from the scum's point of view), the angry replies, the "please remove me" notes, and all of the server messages reporting unknown e-mail addresses will come to me, rather than to the spammer.
Because these spammers use multiple domains, and are based outside of the US, the odds of actually nailing them are more or less zilch. And because the only computers I have any control over aren't involved in these messages at all, there's no way to stop spammers (or anyone else, for that matter) from spoofing bobschaefer.com this way. That's just the way the Internet works today - if you want to send an e-mail that appears to come from Dub@whitehouse.gov, it's painfully easy to do so. Just be advised that Dub has a much better team of spam hunters at his disposal than I do.
So if you've received a junk e-mail that looks like it might come from me, please know that I had nothing to do with it, that I'm as angry about it as you are, and if there were any way I could do anything about it, I promise you I'd zap the sleaze right off the Internet in a nanosecond.
posted by Bob at
9:33 PM
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