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General discussion

Unsent message " Not delivered" !!!!

Mar 10, 2004 5:26PM PST

I recently received an e-mail in my OE6 Inbox with
subject title: disallowed attachment type found in sent message "Re: Your website"
and the message box contains :

Greetings from xxxxxxxxxxx

Our email server has detected a disallowed attachment type in a message you sent
recently and as a result your message has not been delivered. Windows
executable file extensions are not allowed in email, due to the
potential for viruses. The disallowed attachment type was:

.pif Windows Program Information Files

Please contact your I.T. support personnel with any questions
regarding this policy.

Thanks!

Email Administrator
xxxxxxxxx
postmaster @xxxxxxx.com

I have not sent such a message, and my first thought is that some computer with my e-mail address in its address book has been used by a worm which infected that computer.

Has anybody received such an e-mail ? What worm does that ? Or is that e-mail a front for collecting active e-mail addresses ?

Note: the x?s are replacement of an Oerganization?s name. Is there anything I should do ? Thanks.

christy

Discussion is locked

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Re:Unsent message
Mar 10, 2004 6:09PM PST

Hi Christy,

The message is maybe generated by Netsky. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.netsky.k@mm.html

This worm uses its own SMTP engine to send itself to the email addresses it finds.

my first thought is that some computer with my e-mail address in its address book has been used by a worm which infected that computer.

Right. Someone who has your email address in their computer and unfortunately infected by such worm who does this type of distrubution. The senders' email address is spoofed.

Is there anything I should do ?
Delete the mail. Disable preview pane. Do not open the attached message. Use a program that will allow you to check and delete 'unwanted' emails from the server. Example of this program is Mailwasher, ePrompter, Magic Mail Monitor. Make sure your AV is up-to-date. If possible configure your email program to 'read all messages in plain text'.

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Re:Re:Unsent message
Mar 10, 2004 9:55PM PST

I have had a similar experience getting flooded with "undeliverable mail notices" from a mail service other then the one I use. I emailed their "postmaster",no reply, but it has corrected as I haven't received any of these notices for the last 2 days.My system was virus free.Follow Donna's advice,but it should clear for you as well Christy.

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Re:Re:Unsent message
Mar 10, 2004 11:05PM PST

Thanks, Donna,

I already have preview pane disabled but I still have rich text enabled for receiving mail, since it is needed for my purpose. I am careful about attachments and update my anti virus regularly, besides running on line scans and a firewall and Ad-Aware.

I think that e-mail I received was not generated by the worm, but by a party who received an infected message from elsewhere, but with my name and address, so the party sent the message to inform me. Probably, that party might have thought that I was the culprit. There was no attachment on the message.

Those 'value added' messages must have generated a lot of unneeded bad feelings and soured inter-personal relationships !

christy

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Re:Re:Re:Unsent message
Mar 11, 2004 7:41AM PST

Hi again Christy,

I think that e-mail I received was not generated by the worm, but by a party who received an infected message from elsewhere, but with my name and address, so the party sent the message to inform me. Probably, that party might have thought that I was the culprit. There was no attachment on the message.

How about reviewing the email headers by verifying the IP address of the sender. It going to be lot of work but you'll find out the ISP of the sender. You can contact the ISP or ISPs - provide to them the IP address that you gathered and should be able to trace on which of their clients computer is infected.

In case you need help in interpreting the email headers - http://www.valinet.com/~coreya/antispam/asheadi.html