vpFREE wrote:
Appended below are two spam/virus type messages that
were posted on vpFREE today. I've deleted both from
the message archives.Both came from the same computer, were dated 29 Nov
2005, and had attachments (that were deleted by Yahoo
because vpFREE doesn't permit attachments).FWIW, anyone can easily spoof any vpFREE member's
email address and post a message on vpFREE as though
it came from the spoofed member. Since the posts were
from different members and were both sent to vpFREE, it
appears that the spam was intentionally directed at vpFREE.
FWIW, these messages probably weren't intentionally directed at vpFREE.
If a person has the email address of vpFREE in their address book (such as I do
since I use a mailer to read vpFREE correspondence) and they also have the email
address(es) of some of the vpFREE members in their address book as well (to say,
converse with them offlist), then the virus/spam can make use of *any*
combination of email addresses from that particular address book to send out
it's payload.
The key to figuring out which system is infected is to view the headers and
follow the ip address trail back to the originating ip/isp. If they're the same,
then it's probably a vpFREE member that is unknowingly sending virus/spam
attachments out to everyone in their address book.
Then it's just a matter of posting a message to the list that says something
along the lines of, "Those of you that are using Earthlink for internet access
(I just pulled that particular ISP out of my hat) should think about scanning
your computer(s) for virii as it's showing up on the vpFREE list".
--Brett