Re: Sonicwall selling email addresses

From: Walter Roberson (roberson_at_ibd.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca)
Date: 07/02/05 

Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 04:56:57 +0000 (UTC)

In article <Tzkxe.26394$Q05.13214@fe08.lga>,
Tom Del Rosso <ng01@att.net.invalid> wrote:
:3:30 pm -- create new email account for business contacts

:3:45 pm -- give it to Sonicwall to ask for the name of a reseller

:5:30 pm -- get my first spam with the almost virgin address

a) dictionary attacks on popular mail systems

b) some mail systems allow the user list to be probed

c) the name may have existed before, gone out of service and been
released; when you created the account, you inherited the spam
directed at a previous user

d) ISPs sometimes sell account names

I have an email account which has never been used for business,
and which has never been "published", and yet which regularily
receives spam.

I have another email account with the same provider which has
also never been used for business nor been published, and which
has never received a single spam; it's been active for more than
6 months, so it isn't just a matter of timing.

The difference between the two is that the first of them is
-relatively- easy to find using a "dictionary attack", and
the second of the two is not nearly as easy to dictionary. 

-- 
Usenet is like a slice of lemon, wrapped around a large gold brick.

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