A friend writes ...

Dear Graham, I have just received an e-mail claiming to be from my own address with the above title. Should I be concerned?

Short answer - no, you shouldn't be concerned. But this does occur from time to time, and I know that it does concern people, so it's worthy of a fuller answer.

People want to reach you be email with their sales and marketing message - "SPAM" or unsolicited but commercial email it's called. And not only do they want to reach you, but they also want you to open and read their emails. So they'll go to whatever lengths they can in these days where the majority of emails are spams to try and get theirs through to you.

Do you ever copy yourself on an email? Do you ever receive an email from a close friend? I know I do, and indeed I may have (not telling!) a "white list" set up to allow those emails in through my filters. Now it's easy - VERY easy - so falsify the name of the sender in an email, and that's usually what has happened in these cases. Simple as that!

If you have an email client that allows you to see full headers, you'll probably find that the "from" IP addresses of the email that was supposed to be from you is completely different to yours, and you can totally disregard it.

Where a problem DOES occur with this sort of thing is where some low-life decides to use your email address to send out a huge series of SPAMs; you're liable to see a flood of bounced emails turning up in your inbox as if you had sent them - even though you have not. I've had up to 100 a minute ...
(written 2008-01-29 17:45:23)

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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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