On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 16:49:11 -0400, L.D. Best wrote: > I know that some people know how to make phony return addresses on > e-mail. I don't and my ISP wouldn't appreciate me hacking [not negative > term] via telnet or whatever to pull something like that off.
> So I'm asking if anyone knows of any software which will generate a "no > such account" type bounce back to sender... user level would be nice, > but ISP level is worth considering also. > Does it exist? Anyone out there capable of writing the software to do > it? > I get a porn spam > I know better than to "remove" > My only option at present is delete > I'd like to be able to send that message to software that would take the > original message and add a demon bounce message and demon sender shown > in headers. > This alone could make someone richer than Bill Gates if it could be an > option provided by ISPs!! > Please someone invent it, and I'll help test to the best of my ability. That wheel has already been invented, but the wheel won't ever turn until the engineers design and install some good bearings. As far as I know they haven't even gone back to their drawing boards yet. It is easy to send emails having phony "From:" headers. You can do it with Arachne and also with all the other DOS-based email clients I am familiar with. You can probably do that part right on the first test you try. I haven't made any tests and experiments using any of the popular Window$ email clients. I don't know how the spammers insert phony "Return-path" addresses. Using phony "From:" headers is very easy. I have heard about the kind of software you speak of from people posting on various mailing lists I subscribe to. I don't remeber if any of the posts about it were from people on this list. I don't even remember the names of the programs. The posters said that they like the software and they use it, but I don't understand why they think it is of any help. The problem with the software is that it just generates a phony "bounced mail" message destined for whatever return address appears in the "From:" header of the offending message. The "bounced mail" message looks just like one that would be sent from your ISP's mailer daemon saying that there is no such email address. The software does not determine who is the real sender of the offending message. The "bounced mail" message just goes to never-never land. The spammer never receives the message and he never learns that his spam was "bounced". Even if the software could determine who is the real sender of the offending message the spammer who receives it would probably be smart enough to distinguish between a real "bounced mail" message and a phony one. The only thing he would have to do would be to simply run a check on the IP number from which the "bounced mail" message originated. Sending a phony "bounced mail" message would only result in confirming your email address to the spammer. Software of this type that will work for you only at the user level would do you more harm than good. Software of this type could not be useful for you unless it is made to work at the ISP level where the IP number of the "bounced mail" message reflects the real IP number of your ISP's mailer daemon. ISP's probably would not want to go along with user requests to install such software that would work at the ISP level. They probably would not want to do that because it would involve the ISP in sending out information which is knows to be false. In doing so the ISP would lose its credibility, even if the lies were fabricated for a "justifiable" reason. Many people are so hung up on their morals and ethics that they think it is wrong to tell a lie, even if they have a "justifiable" reason for doing so. Applying "situational ethics" will work best for some people in some circumstances, but a person who claims to believe in "moral absolutes" would have a problem with that because he would get accused of being an hypocritical and inconsistent person. Emerson said that "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". If you think about that, the hobgoblin will haunt you. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser: http://browser.arachne.cz/
