Why do I get rejection messages for mail that I did not send?
This happens when your e-mail address is put in the sender field of a message sent by someone (or something) else, and that message is rejected as undeliverable. In short, here is what happens:
- Mail is sent that appears to be from you, but is not. (A virus might raid a victim's address book for addresses and find yours, or a spammer might use addresses harvested from web sites or elsewhere, or a program randomly generating addresses might generate yours.)
- The mail is delivered to an invalid address. Or the mail is delivered to a valid address but is rejected because it contains a virus.
- The destination mail system returns the mail to the apparent sender (you).
There isn't much you can do about these rejections other than report the problem to the ISP where the mail actually originated. Sometimes you can determine this from looking at the full headers. If a virus rejection message's full headers indicate it originated at U-M, you can forward it to the U-M Virus Busters Team (virus.busters@umich.edu) for assistance.
For more information, see Forged E-Mail (from the IT User Advocate).
This page last verified March 2008
|
Return to the E-Mail FAQ
