Re: Last word... for tonight!

[P3D Michael Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I can see how certain "programmers" in this list will tell me that
> there are software to be downloaded or switches to be changed to enable
> me to detect "fake" messages and even that this practice (of sending a
> message using a fake ID) is OK and it even has useful applications.  I
> don't care to figure out how this is done and, even if I have an interest
> in computers, my wife and young children certainly do not.

Yes, email is *not* secure by any stretch of the imagination, and it
isn't recommended that credit card numbers be sent by email, and if
one insists on doing so, it should be broken up into several separate
messages spaced maybe an hour apart.  There supposedly are mail-filters
in the network that look for numbers going by.  Fortunately, it's mostly
the charge card companies that get ding'ed for fraud... although a little
of that shows up in interest rates.

There are even bigger problems, but I won't go into them.  But it isn't
too hard to fake things.  However, if the person sending the fake mail
wants to get an email *response* then the "reply-to" field probably needs
to be something that will point to them so the response will route to
them.  Forgery is easiest when you're only sending it "one way".

No, I didn't do it.  I outgrew that something like 20 years ago.  I've
been using email for a *LONG* time.  I would have covered my tracks
a little better too.  :-)

Mike K.


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