Email help***Anyone know what this means?

[JEMZ]

From : Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@aol.com>
Sent : January 4, 2004 6:51:27 AM
To : <jemz420@hotmail.com>
Subject : Returned mail: User unknown

| | Inbox


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attachment : attach4 (759 bytes)

The original message was received at Sun, 4 Jan 2004 01:51:07 -0500 (EST)
from [80.74.168.172]


*** ATTENTION ***

Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its
delivery. The address which was undeliverable is listed in the section
labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----".

The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section
labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could
not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a
general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail
administrator.

--AOL Postmaster



----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<lescusa241@aol.com>
<lesdapankyness@aol.com>
<lesdim@aol.com>
<lesdog@aol.com>
<lesdp@aol.com>
<lesecure@aol.com>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-xi02.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<lesecure@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lesecure@aol.com>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<lesdp@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lesdp@aol.com>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<lesdog@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lesdog@aol.com>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<lesdim@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lesdim@aol.com>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<lesdapankyness@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lesdapankyness@aol.com>... User unknown
>>> RCPT To:<lescusa241@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <lescusa241@aol.com>... User unknown



***Over the past 3 weeks... my hotmail has like 15 of these a day all from the AOL Mailer-daemon. I have nothing to do with AOL. Does this mean someone with AOl has me on their mail list and they have a virus? I have no idea about this one, maybe YOU can help me.

 

[deep]

virus/worm sending itself out to all kinds of users who no longer exist...somewhere in its propogation your email is involved

update your virus def'ns and scan, as well as run spybot and adaware

 

[JEMZ]

Thanks Deep.

 

[xtcfreak]

it could also be that someone is sending out spam or virus and using your email as the return address..

Jay

 

[~atp~]

Originally posted by deep
virus/worm sending itself out to all kinds of users who no longer exist...somewhere in its propogation your email is involved

update your virus def'ns and scan, as well as run spybot and adaware

This is definitely the problem. Just look at the email recipients.

 

[Balzz]

Originally posted by deep
virus/worm sending itself out to all kinds of users who no longer exist...somewhere in its propogation your email is involved

update your virus def'ns and scan, as well as run spybot and adaware

Since it's a hotmail account, I'm thinking their email addy was used in a reply-to field of spam.

 

[~atp~]

Originally posted by Balzz
Since it's a hotmail account, I'm thinking their email addy was used in a reply-to field of spam.

No, the default behaviour is to reply to the original sender, regardless of the reply-to address.

 

[JEMZ]

See I update and ran full virus scan + Ad-Aware and opened up a few mins ago and same ole stuff.

It's not like I'll die if this persists, but it is a bit of a pain and I don't want it to be a symptom of a potential larger problem.

 

[Dr. Grinch]

Originally posted by ~atp~
No, the default behaviour is to reply to the original sender, regardless of the reply-to address.

No, I think Balzz is right there actually. You can mask the original sender as whoever you want. It's not like an IP where there's a return route.

 

[Humanjava]

Its not a virus but rather a spoofed email adrs.

 

[Syntax Error]

i think the groundhogs are behind this.

 

[~atp~]

Originally posted by Dr. Grinch
No, I think Balzz is right there actually. You can mask the original sender as whoever you want. It's not like an IP where there's a return route.

Setting the "reply-to" field won't work...trust me, I've set up enough email servers to know that much. What you can do is spoof the source address and relay your mail, provided you can find a server that'll do it for you.

 

[Balzz]

Originally posted by ~atp~
Setting the "reply-to" field won't work...trust me, I've set up enough email servers to know that much. What you can do is spoof the source address and relay your mail, provided you can find a server that'll do it for you.

Hmm...I just checked it out to be sure and the reply-to field gets used as the first choice when there's a value. Could be an exception in the situation I'm using though - you've probably set up more mail servers than I have. Anyhow, the from field is easily forged anyway if an SMTP server allows relaying.

 

[Dr. Grinch]

Originally posted by ~atp~
Setting the "reply-to" field won't work...trust me, I've set up enough email servers to know that much. What you can do is spoof the source address and relay your mail, provided you can find a server that'll do it for you.

That was more what I was insinuating. An open relay Exchange server. Christ knows theres about a billion of them out there that aren't secure. :\

 

[~atp~]

Originally posted by Balzz
Hmm...I just checked it out to be sure and the reply-to field gets used as the first choice when there's a value. Could be an exception in the situation I'm using though - you've probably set up more mail servers than I have. Anyhow, the from field is easily forged anyway if an SMTP server allows relaying.

Yah, I'm trying to remember, but I think that the master.cf (or whatever config file you might use for sendmail/postfix/etc) has an option that lets you bounce to the reply-to address...although, I *think* the default behaviour is to respond to sender.

You're right though, SMTP is such a loosely-structured protocol that it's easy to misuse. ...it comes in handy when you have a friend you don't like.

 

[Balzz]

Originally posted by ~atp~
YYou're right though, SMTP is such a loosely-structured protocol that it's easy to misuse. ...it comes in handy when you have a friend you don't like.

It's been a long long time since I lit the fuse of an old-fashioned mailbomb.