Strange Messages from Amazon.com

[Robin 'Roblimo' Miller]

>  
> What is happening is that some spammer sends an email with a return 
> address here - and it ends up hitting one of Amazons servers - so that 
> server bounces it.

Quite likely. As the "complaint department" for OSTG sites, I get a lot 
of "STOP SPAMMING ME OR I'LL DO SOMETHING TERRIBLE TO YOU" emails, 
including many that claim they're getting emails from our site alias 
email addresses that have no outbound capability.

Using a fake email return address is a typical spammer "deflect the 
anger" trick. Here's a Wikipedia entry on the topic: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

Sometimes the spoofed "from" addresses are selected randomly, and 
sometimes they are grabbed from zombie computers' Outlook address folders.

I believe the latter is more common. The only 100% sure cure for it is, 
of course, to ban all Windows computers from the Internet.

Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
OSTG