Is it possible for someone to use a fake return email address?

Hello,

I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
address as the return address when sending an email?

Either my hotmail account has been hacked (which I doubt) or someone
is really messing with me. I changed my password earlier today.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This whole thing started when I began to get angry replies to emails
that I never sent. For instance:

"Please do not abuse our email response system by sending ignorant and
inappropriate comments. First of all, this system is in place for
students who genuinely need advice for their issues. Secondly, your
comments show complete disregard for what we stand for as an
organization that promotes international humanitarian aid.

Your prank emails are not appreciated. If you continue to abuse this
system, we will report your IP address to the appropriate authorities.

- Absolute Leadership Development"



"On 3/11/07, (E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote:

Category: Absolute
---
JERK ME OFF IM SO HORNeY FOR POOR AFRICAN KIDS "


^The above email was not written by me, and I am very offended that
someone is using my email address to ruin my good name.

Any advice on a situation like this? I was going to send an email to
them saying that I did not send it, but I haven't yet. I'm hoping
someone on usenet might have a few good ideas for me.

Dude, nothing can be easier than faking your return e-mail address.
Some folks do it all the time - when spamming other people with
unwanted e-mails or posting various spam messages on usenet.
The harder trick is faking originating host's IP address - that would
require some more advanced skills but it's still very doable.
Just ignore the whole thing - it has no legal significance for you
whatsoever...

On Mar 12, 7:45 pm, mail1227...@lawrabbit.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?
>
> Either my hotmail account has been hacked (which I doubt) or someone
> is really messing with me. I changed my password earlier today.
>
>
>
> This whole thing started when I began to get angry replies to emails
> that I never sent. For instance:
>
> "Please do not abuse our email response system by sending ignorant and
> inappropriate comments. First of all, this system is in place for
> students who genuinely need advice for their issues. Secondly, your
> comments show complete disregard for what we stand for as an
> organization that promotes international humanitarian aid.
>
> Your prank emails are not appreciated. If you continue to abuse this
> system, we will report your IP address to the appropriate authorities.
>
> - Absolute Leadership Development"
>
> "On 3/11/07, E...@hotmail.com <E...@hotmail.com > wrote:
>
> Category: Absolute
> ---
> JERK ME OFF IM SO HORNeY FOR POOR AFRICAN KIDS "
>
> ^The above email was not written by me, and I am very offended that
> someone is using my email address to ruin my good name.
>
> Any advice on a situation like this? I was going to send an email to
> them saying that I did not send it, but I haven't yet. I'm hoping
> someone on usenet might have a few good ideas for me.

On Mar 12, 5:28 pm, Jerry Avins <j...@ieee.org> wrote:
> mail1227...@lawrabbit.com wrote:
> > Hello,
>
> > I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> > address as the return address when sending an email?
>
> Of course. Why do you ask here instead of at hotmail?

I thought I'd get a more reliable answer from people in a computer NG
than from a CSR. The info I have gotten so far has been useful.

Dude, nothing can be easier than faking your return e-mail address.
Some folks do it all the time - when spamming other people with
unwanted e-mails or posting various spam messages on usenet.
The harder trick is faking originating host's IP address - that would
require some more advanced skills but it's still very doable.
Just ignore the whole thing - it has no legal significance for you
whatsoever...

On Mar 12, 7:45 pm, mail1227...@lawrabbit.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?
>
> Either my hotmail account has been hacked (which I doubt) or someone
> is really messing with me. I changed my password earlier today.
>
>
>
> This whole thing started when I began to get angry replies to emails
> that I never sent. For instance:
>
> "Please do not abuse our email response system by sending ignorant and
> inappropriate comments. First of all, this system is in place for
> students who genuinely need advice for their issues. Secondly, your
> comments show complete disregard for what we stand for as an
> organization that promotes international humanitarian aid.
>
> Your prank emails are not appreciated. If you continue to abuse this
> system, we will report your IP address to the appropriate authorities.
>
> - Absolute Leadership Development"
>
> "On 3/11/07, E...@hotmail.com <E...@hotmail.com > wrote:
>
> Category: Absolute
> ---
> JERK ME OFF IM SO HORNeY FOR POOR AFRICAN KIDS "
>
> ^The above email was not written by me, and I am very offended that
> someone is using my email address to ruin my good name.
>
> Any advice on a situation like this? I was going to send an email to
> them saying that I did not send it, but I haven't yet. I'm hoping
> someone on usenet might have a few good ideas for me.

Hi
Yes it is quite common that Spammers, and other offenders, spoof other
people email addresses. These emails are probably Not sent from your email
server. I.e it is Not hacked and thus changing password would not help.
However, to make sure check with the email support service.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) s.com...
> Hello,
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?
>
> Either my hotmail account has been hacked (which I doubt) or someone
> is really messing with me. I changed my password earlier today.
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> This whole thing started when I began to get angry replies to emails
> that I never sent. For instance:
>
> "Please do not abuse our email response system by sending ignorant and
> inappropriate comments. First of all, this system is in place for
> students who genuinely need advice for their issues. Secondly, your
> comments show complete disregard for what we stand for as an
> organization that promotes international humanitarian aid.
>
> Your prank emails are not appreciated. If you continue to abuse this
> system, we will report your IP address to the appropriate authorities.
>
> - Absolute Leadership Development"
>
>
>
> "On 3/11/07, (E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote:
>
> Category: Absolute
> ---
> JERK ME OFF IM SO HORNeY FOR POOR AFRICAN KIDS "
>
>
> ^The above email was not written by me, and I am very offended that
> someone is using my email address to ruin my good name.
>
> Any advice on a situation like this? I was going to send an email to
> them saying that I did not send it, but I haven't yet. I'm hoping
> someone on usenet might have a few good ideas for me.
>

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?

Of course. Why do you ask here instead of at hotmail?

On Mar 12, 4:45 pm, mail1227...@lawrabbit.com wrote:

> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?

Yes, but it is also often easy to detect such fakes.

> Either my hotmail account has been hacked (which I doubt) or someone
> is really messing with me. I changed my password earlier today.

> This whole thing started when I began to get angry replies to emails
> that I never sent. For instance:

> "Please do not abuse our email response system by sending ignorant and
> inappropriate comments. First of all, this system is in place for
> students who genuinely need advice for their issues. Secondly, your
> comments show complete disregard for what we stand for as an
> organization that promotes international humanitarian aid.

> Your prank emails are not appreciated. If you continue to abuse this
> system, we will report your IP address to the appropriate authorities.

This response is inappropriate unless the responder in fact verified
the source of the email. The IP address he would report is likely not
yours anyway.

> Any advice on a situation like this? I was going to send an email to
> them saying that I did not send it, but I haven't yet. I'm hoping
> someone on usenet might have a few good ideas for me.

Send them an email telling them you don't appreciate their
inappropriate comments and that they should learn how to read headers
and track an email before they make threats and accusations.

One thing mail administrators hate more than anything is having to
deal with being blamed for other people's abuse. Creating such
problems for other people themselves and blaming the victim is
unacceptable. This is especially true with a source like Hotmail which
is especially easy to verify.

I'm assuming this email is a very bad fake, perhaps their behavior is
excusable if it's a really good one. Did they at least send you back
full headers?

DS

(E-Mail Removed) writes:
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?

Yes -- you can set your From: header to anything you want, both in
email and news (a little quick delving through the headers on this
message will reveal that while I'm still using my (E-Mail Removed)
email address to post to usenet, I'm no longer posting from that
account -- they've quit supporting usenet, so I'm now posting from my
home account. But I'd rather not make that account quite so easily
accessible to spammers).

There's really not much you can do about it except to assure the
people responding that it wasn't you.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
> address as the return address when sending an email?

[snip]

> "On 3/11/07, (E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote:

Hmm.

Lets see here...

You are the registered "owner" of the Hotmail address (E-Mail Removed) ...

Which means, you would had to have to registered on Hotmail practically the
day that they went on online.

Yet, you don't know that:

- Changing the From header in mail user agents is not only trivial, it is a
feature.

- The chance that some clown out there would pick "(E-Mail Removed)" to
send stupid email to some organization is very good.

- Didn't think to take a quick glance at this email sent from this
organization. (Which could've been bullshit, itself.)

- Ask this organization for the original email, so you could look at this
headers if you think it is a big deal.

- Know to laugh at the "legit" email to begin with. Give me a break. The
fact that they event sent you anything says volumes. It would've been much
easier to just procmail your ass then reply. And the suggestion about
contacting "appropriate authorities" is a joke. At best, maybe they could
get Hotmail to delete the account -- but I doubt it. Hotmail is too busy
dealing with the mass spammers than to devote even a second to silly
one-sies and two-sies things like this.

/me thinks it is you spewing the BS.

If not, I apologize, but you to have to recognize why eyebrows are raised.

On 12 Mar 2007 16:45:01 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I have a simple question. Is it possible for someone to use MY email
>address as the return address when sending an email?

It is very easy if you send mail with Outlook Express or Eudora or a
similar program rather than webmail.

I've got an account on the free mail service nerdshack.com. I'm going
to send myself mail and forge George Bush as the sender.

telnet mail.nerdshack.com 25
220 mail.nerdshack.com ESMTP dispatchd
helo world
250 mail.nerdshack.com
mail from: <(E-Mail Removed)>
250 Sender okay.
rcpt to: <[censored]@nerdshack.com>
250 Recipient okay.
data
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself.
From: Dubya <(E-Mail Removed)>
To: <[censored]@nerdshack.com>
Subject: This is a test

Test.
..
250 Message accepted.
quit
221 Bye.

I should note that if I use nerdshack's mail server to send mail to
another domain, I have to login to the server and the server prevents
me from forging. But most mail serves don't prevent forgery even when
they require you to login.



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