junk mail with no "To:" line

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4 total messages Started by petilon Mon, 23 Nov 1998 00:00

#50

Author: petilon
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 00:00

14 lines
1322 bytes

I got a new account with Best about a week back, and the first time I logged
in there was already a junk e-mail waiting for me! Since then I have received
a few more junk e-mails. Since I had never posted to usenet or sent e-mail
from this account the junk mailers could not have gotten hold of my address.

When I examined the header of these e-mails I found that there is no "To:"
line in it. My e-mail address was not present anywhere in the header. So
why was the mail delivered to me? I asked Best and they said I was Bcc'd the
mail. But I don't think that's true because in that case the Bcc line would
have shown one address - my address.

I think the spammers are exploiting some loop hole in the mail software
whereby they can send their mail to all users on a system by leaving out
the "To:" line entirely. Is this possible?

Re: junk mail with no "To:" line

#48

Author: Mystic Zen Biker Twigboy
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 00:00

11 lines
943 bytes

petilon@my-dejanews.com wrote:
] I got a new account with Best about a week back,

Speaking of leaks to dejanews....   


-- 
 ,--  phil stracchino  ---  the renaissance man  ---  lone geek biker  --.
 \   "I know a cat named Easter, he says, Will you ever learn / You're   /
  \   just an empty cage girl, if you kill the bird..."  -- Tori Amos   /
   `--  '91 Camaro Z28  --  '86 VF500F Interceptor  --  '91 VFR750F3  -'

Re: junk mail with no "To:" line

#49

Author: slow djinn
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 00:00

11 lines
965 bytes

In article <73an38$28e$1@babylon5.babcom.com>,
Mystic Zen Biker Twigboy <alaric@babcom.com> wrote:
>petilon@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>] I got a new account with Best about a week back,
>Speaking of leaks to dejanews....   

It was posted via nntp1, not via dejanews.

rone
-- 
You can't write "obsolescent" without "NT".                    <rone@ennui.org>

Re: junk mail with no "To:" line

#51

Author: David Doudna
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 00:00

35 lines
2006 bytes

petilon@my-dejanews.com wrote...
> I got a new account with Best about a week back, and the first time I
logged
> in there was already a junk e-mail waiting for me! Since then I have
received
> a few more junk e-mails. Since I had never posted to usenet or sent e-mail
> from this account the junk mailers could not have gotten hold of my
address.
> 
> When I examined the header of these e-mails I found that there is no "To:"
> line in it. My e-mail address was not present anywhere in the header. So
> why was the mail delivered to me? I asked Best and they said I was Bcc'd
the
> mail. But I don't think that's true because in that case the Bcc line would
> have shown one address - my address.

Not necessarily.  While MTA's _may_ propagate the BCC line to the BCC'ed,
most just drop the BCC line for _all_ recipients.

> I think the spammers are exploiting some loop hole in the mail software
> whereby they can send their mail to all users on a system by leaving out
> the "To:" line entirely. Is this possible?

No.

They can leave out the To:, From:, or Subject: lines as they wish.  You
received the message because your address was in the "To" of the SMTP
envelope information.  Unfortunately, the MTA at best.com (for reasons
which I have not yet heard) only converts some of that information into
a X-Received-To: (or something like that) header iff you have a custom
domain name.  Even the old "vip"s like me with static IPs don't get that
feature.

-David Doudna
oldphart@ddoudna.vip.best.com

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