Yes, it's Yet Another Posting About Spam. After my previous two postings this week, I promised myself "¡No más!" Nobody wants to read this stuff. Let me instead try to write something that actually hasn't been said a thousand times before. But this morning when booting up my machine, instead of the hundred-and-something emails I normally expect, I got several thousand. Here's why: Almost all spam is intended to persuade the recipient to visit a web site. For that reason, the From and (optionally) Return-Path headers are really irrelevant. To make the email appear more authentic, however, often these headers contain email address fabricated from an existing domain name, for example, MisterMxyzptlk@charlespetzold.com . That appears to be a valid email address because the domain name exists, but in reality the only person who works here is me, and that's not my name. At about 1:45 this morning, somebody sent out a bunch of spam with From and Return-Path headers containing email addresses based Read More...