[DX] POSSIBLE E-MAIL FORGERY - FRAUD

[Peter Hers]

Hi Alf

Unfortunately this is a very common problem...  There are many viruses
on the internet which cause this problem.  Once these viruses become
active on a machine, they send out copies of themselves, sometimes with
variations, to all or selected email addresses in the user's personal
address book.  Just to be nasty, they 'spoof' the sender's email address
as well, again by picking at random from the user's address book, or
from other random sources.

You may therefore get complaints from your normal correspondents who
think you are responsible, whereas the real source may be a (possibly
unsuspecting) third party who has a virus, and who has both yours and
your correspondent's email addresses in his address book.

If your email address appears in public places, eg: you have your own
web site, or you are listed on various information services, you may be
more prone to receiving this kind of interference...  simply because it
is easier for junk mail/spam generators and viruses to pick up your
email address.

Where the email generated is a known virus, or can be picked up by
anti-spam software, you would probably not be aware of the problem...
This depends on how good your ISP is at dealing with the problem.  But
it is not an easy problem to solve, and the battleground is continually
changing.

73

Peter
ZS6PHD

-----Original Message-----
From: dx-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:dx-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Alfred J. Cammarata
Sent: 29 May 2004 05:14
To: dx at mailman.qth.net; hq at arrl.org; security at juno.com;
419.fcd at usss.treas.gov; uce at ftc.gov
Subject: [DX] POSSIBLE E-MAIL FORGERY - FRAUD


Attn:  WEBMASTERS & to the qth.net ham community.

 For a few months I have been receiving several e-mails daily - many
with what appear to be valid amateur e-mail addresses which I have
searched on QRZ and other directories.  The e-mails contain comments in
the text such
as: "funny", "Please stop this it is illegal". 'Can you send me more
photos?", "Are you sure your figures are correct", "Can you send me more
information", "How can you do this?" etc accompanied with an attachment.

The forwarded message shows the originator as
"italiancookbook1 at juno.com".  This is my current e-mail account but I am
NOT the originator of this nasty material. If anyone has received it, I
want you to know I am a victim of e-mail forgery and not the originator.
I have informed my ISP but so far I have had no word from them. I have
also informed the USSS (US Secret Service and US FTC - Federal Trade
Commission) because of possisble fraud and violation of Federal
SPAM/SCAM laws. 

WARNING:  Some of the attachments may contain a virus.  Until I am able
to resolve this problem. Anyone that receives an e-mail with the
originator address italiancookbook1 at juno.com with an attachment please
do not open the attachment.

All e-mails I originate contain my name and callsign at bottom of the
text as indicated below. Any others you can consider suspect.  Tnx & 73 
Al 

ALFRED CAMMARATA
           W3AWU

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