RE: VERY nasty mass mailing

You still have not convinced me that it is spam, you are close with it
sending it to two email addresses. Maybe if you post the header from the
email (I would change any valid email addresses  (sorry I should of done
that when I posted your message header) do not want more mining going on) I
might be a believer. Having more then one email addresses does seam
strange. But the virus email might of had a From and Return path. I have
not worked with AV software enough to know how the auto reply works. The
virus could of picked "Shelly & Jeff" If I was doing spam I would leave the
name blank instead of picking names at random. And you say it is mining by
last name if it stores it by last name why pick Shelly & Jeff.

Read  http://news.com.com/2100-1001-916945.html  from that link:
"In many cases, antivirus software protecting a company's e-mail gateways
is sending out a response to each infected e-mail inadvertently sent out by
a victim--but that warning is going to the wrong person. "So, in effect,
you're getting twice the fun you would normally get," Cohen said. "

That email could of been an auto reply  from AV software that someone at a
company that has nothing to do with Norton, other then he likes their AV
software, keyed in. I really do think any valid email should give you some
idea of where it came from and if it was auto generated.

And since the email says "but this type of e-mail and file usually contains
a virus" it maybe someone (Company) who is just using rules to reply to any
email with attachments.

I think you should find out where it came from and if it is spam report it
and if it is an auto reply inform the company they need to put some more
information in the email

I guess the reason I am not sure it is spam and not an auto reply is it
just is not done very well. But maybe they do that to make it not look like
spam. If that is the case I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

John Ross


At 01:51 PM 9/1/2002 -0500, you wrote:

Make no mistake.  This is SPAM, pure and simple, and of the most deceptive
and disgusting kind.  They could NOT have sent some to
joepluta@plutabrothers.com and addressed it to "Shelly & Jeff".  Simple
logic indicates it was a a mail merge email.  This is in fact very close to
fraud, and I'm wondering whether I shouldn't report it.