On 19 Feb 2002, at 17:24, Richard Simpson wrote:

> Can anyone please tell me how spam that doesn't appear to be
> addressed to me actually arrives in my inbox?  Example: an email
> with the address after "@": std1.mis.yzu.edu.tw.  This is
> presumably an address in Taiwan, given all the Chinese characters
> in the message.  How does it end up in the UK?  TIA.

  Many email programs support a "BCC" feature, in which a note
addressed (apparently) to one set of addresses is also copied to a
second set (Cc:, "carbon copy") and a third set (Bcc: "blank carbon
copy").
  Note that the addresses on the Bcc: list are not shown on the
copies sent to the To: and Cc: lists, and often are not shown on the
copies to the Bcc: list either.

  So odds are good that your spammer has addressed the To: field to
himself (or to the throwaway faked address from which he hopes people
will believe the message has come) and Bcc'd it to about 5000 of his
close friends such as yourself.

David Gillett

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