Richard Langley wrote:
> Is this really from Fernando? Doesn't sound like it. Note that the
> posting did not origniate from his usual e-mail address but from Hot
> Mail. Do we have a Fernando imposter?
Yes, Richard, that rude note is obviously from an imposter. The *real*
Fernando Cabral has always sent his missives from the e-mail address
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; the phony Fernando -- obviously a spineless
troublemaker -- is posting from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Forgeries such as this are a rampant problem on the 'Net today, especially
with the rise of "throwaway" e-mail accounts from services like Hotmail.com.
Fortunately, these services have finally begun to supply hints in their
e-mail headers as to the true sources of the messages.
For example, in the posting from our phony Fernando, one of the e-mail
headers shows the sender's originating IP address:
X-Originating-Ip: [206.206.120.30] .
Using the "nslookup" service, this IP address corresponds to the following
server/ISP:
sc021.zianet.com .
Now, by invoking Unix's "whois" command, we find that zianet.com is located
in New Mexico, USA:
Registrant:
ZiaNet, Inc. (ZIANET-DOM)
P.O. Box 8368
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88006
USA
Finally, when I send an e-mail to the sundial list server at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
containing just the following two-line message in the body of the e-mail:
who sundial
end
... I get the current list -- 335 subscribers in all -- of sundial mailing
list participants. And wouldn't you know it? There is just *one* person
on that roster with an e-mail address at zianet.com.
Yes, I know that this is insufficient evidence to convict in a court of
law, but given that there are only three-hundred-something participants
in this forum from the entire world, what are the odds that we would have
*two* different subscribers to this mailing list from the same small-time
ISP serving the sparsely populated southwest desert region of the USA?
Or is it just far more likely that these two individuals at zianet.com
are actually one and the same?
My apologies to the good folks on the sundial mailing list for having
to put up with the above off-topic administrivia. But knowing how to
determine an e-mail forgery is, sadly, becoming a necessary skill in
today's e-world. I now consider it a must-have tool in one's "baloney
detection kit."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mark Gingrich [EMAIL PROTECTED] San Leandro, California
