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Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
Quoting Serge G. (galabs2000@gmail.com):
> IT IS NOT A SPAM, but if you received that message second and plus > time JUST CLICK DELETE button and have a nice day.
Uh-huh.
[Stuff about cloning, from a possibly mentally ill individual snipped, about which see: http://jeffvrabel.com/2008/11/24/scarlet[...]ly-troubled-e-mail-i-have-just-received/]
In the headers, one notes:
Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:48981 helo=linuxmafia.com)
by linuxmafia.com with esmtp (Exim 4.61 #1 (EximConfig 2.0))
id 1LdUqI-00032b-NR ; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:27:27 -0800
Received: from sendmail.canada.com ([199.71.40.31]:32455)
by linuxmafia.com with esmtp (Exim 4.61 #1 (EximConfig 2.0))
id 1LdUpa-00032O-1z
for <tag@lists.linuxgazette.net>; Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:27:08 -0800
Received: from gmail.com ([10.146.8.73]) by Sendmail.Canada.Com with Microsoft
SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:27:51 -0500
From: "Serge G." <galabs2000@gmail.com>
So, the headers claim that it came from a typical throwaway GMail account (though that might be a lie), but in any event the mail somehow ended up at Canada.com, which is a commerical outfit billed as "Canadian news, entertainment, television, newspapers, free email and more". So, in addition to blacklisting the (alleged) GMail sender, I attempted to contact "abuse@canada.com" and "postmaster@canada.com", both of which are RFC-required mail drops for any domain that does SMTP mail.
Why? Because I really don't like having to blacklist entire large mail concerns, just because one bad apple sneaked abusive mail through. Those mail drops are the canonical places to get a provider's attention to exactly such problems. So, what happened next?
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
postmaster@canada.com
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO
postmaster@canada.com>:
host mx1.canada.vsi.net [64.22.133.10]: 550 Mailbox disabled for this recipient - <postmaster@canada.com>
abuse@canada.com
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TOabuse@canada.com>:
host mx1.canada.vsi.net [64.22.133.10]: 550 Account temporarily suspended due to inactivity. User must login to reactivate mailbox.
So, wow! They've decided to disable postmaster, and to ignore the abuse mailbox to the point where the software automatically disabled delivery. Well, if they want to completely disregard key RFC requirements on all SMTP senders -- requirements so key that you need to go out of your way to disable them in commodity SMTP software -- then my server doesn't need to hear from them again.
So much for Canada.com. plonk
Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
I wrote:
> [Stuff about cloning, from a possibly mentally ill individual snipped, > about which see: > http://jeffvrabel.com/2008/11/24/scarlet[...]ly-troubled-e-mail-i-have-just-received/]
Searching on one of the more distinctive parts of this canned e-mail, one can easily figure out the rest of the story: It seems likely that, a couple of years ago, a mentally disturbed (classic schizophrenic) person, whose real name we probably don't have, either saw or heard about a flash-in-the-pan 2005 science-fiction / thriller movie called "The Island", starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.
In that movie, two citizens of a future, toxic-contaminated world win a lottery prize to visit an uncontaminated paradise called "The Island". Much plot follows, with the protoganists eventually finding out that the entire setup of their lives is a ruse; that they themselves are vat-grown clones about to be harvested for their organs at hidden medical floors at "The Island", escape, and so on.
Somehow, the author of the recent e-mail apparently developed a fixation that at least part of the premise of this fiction was real, and has set on an Internet crusade to let us all know that Scarlett Johansson is a clone -- rather than going back onto his meds, as he should.
The e-mail is just loopy enough that you can find copies of it willingly hosted, and discussed, widely around the Internet.
And somewhere, the sender has been madly cramming his schizophrenic production out through unguarded mail relays, incessantly over the last few years, and otherwise going quietly nuts.