All,
This is another one of those unfounded rumors circulating on the net.
None of the major E-mail clients (outlook, messenger, mozilla), send
unaknowledged confirmation notices. While most client software does
have a return receipt funtion, I know of no maistream e-mail software
that allows that function to be exploited as described below. No
consumer would want to use it, and most web-software companies are doing
everything in their power to ADD security/privacy funtions, since
security is what sells these days. Just look at the fierce battles for
market share between MS and Netscape. If the programmers did
accidentaly let this loophole into the software, if would have been
discovered and patched a long time ago. It's possible that someone could
write a script to do all kinds of nefarious things and attach it to an
e-mail, but that would show up as an attachment. It's safe to say that
99% of spam does not contain attachements, does not do what is described
below and has no idea if the e-mail has ever been open. So don't worry
about opening any e-mail, unless there is an attachment. Attachments
should always be scanned if you dont trust the sender. If you have an
IMAP account (as opposed to a POP3), it's not even possible to
disconnect and read, since the mail is stored on the server and not your
local machine
Unfortunately 99% of spam is not generated by legitimate businesses
and therefore will not easily be controlled by some of the the pending
spam legislation in the US, nor is it likely that violators will be
prosecuted as it is still mostly a nuisance crime. (albeit the major
nuisance in my life)
Too Bad,
James J.
p.s. I actualy have no experience with Eudora, so perhaps this is
something unique to it.
>
>
> Barrie Robinson wrote:
>
>> Someone on the list advised that one should not open spam messages
>> while connected to the 'net because they send a message back
>> confirming the validity of your address - then adding you to a spam
>> list. So I did exactly that - and guess what? It does stop the
>> confirmation and I suggest people disconnect before opening any
>> messages !!!! Strange there is no warning by the email program
>> (Eudora) that the message has initiated a return message !!!!
>>
>> Barrie
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