How to stop attacker?

I have been receiving the following email at least once a week for quite some time now. I assume there is nothing I can do about it but one can always hope. It is always accompanied by a two .txt attachments.
__________________________________________________________
The original message was received at Mon, 7 Jun 2004 13:32:19 -0400 (EDT) from dsl13022.ywave.com [66.243.212.22]


*** ATTENTION ***

Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its delivery. The address which was undeliverable is listed in the section
labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- ".

The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section
labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows ----- ".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail administrator.

--AOL Postmaster



----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <steveslostad@aol.com>

----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to air-ye01.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<steveslostad@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <steveslostad@aol.com>... User unknown
___________________________________________________________

Obviously, I don't know this person but he wants to "know" me. Any suggestions?

Signed,
Hang-all-Hackers

 

Delete. Delete. Delete. It's called email spoofing. Someone's infected machine is generating and sending emails to random addresses with your return address. Some of them are obviously not legitimate addys so they come back to you. Delete. Delete. Delete. Then pray it will stop soon.

 

Why doesn't my Norton AV detect a virus/trojan/worm in the attachments?

 

I suggest getting MailWasher

Use it to preview mail right on the server and DELETE anything that does look like anything that you want.

This keeps it off of your machine completely.

One suggestion though. Do not BOUNCE any mail. It only tens to help confirm your address.

BillyBob

 

Because you didn't open it.

Either the ISP, if they provide the service (MSN will for example) or MailWasher will scan on the Server level.

Regards - Charles

 

Bear with me, doesn't Norton scan other attachments? When Norton alerts me of a threat I assume it is in the attachment.

Mailwasher only filters mail from unknown sources, it doesn't scan the contents, correct?

 

Seeing that there is an attachment, NAV gave you a canned response: something like "attachments can be dangerous..... ". Not untill you open - click on the attachment, does Norton actually scan. I think it will ask whether to open it or download it to the a HD folder. The recommended action is to download where the Auto Protect feature comes into play.

MailWasher - not using it, can't tell you about the distinction, if any, between Known/Unknown. someone who uses MW should explain that and the word "preview" and what it means in this context. I would think it would scan, otherwise, I don't understand what good it does, my ISP lets me "preview" my e-mail.

Regards - Charles

 

If the attachments you get are really text files (rather than other files with hidden extensions beyond .txt) then I imagine what you are getting is not infected. The post that was sent to the bogus address probably did carry a virus but your notification of the failure most likely does not.

I ran Norton for a long while and it would scan attachments as they downloaded to my inbox and alert me - no need to try to open them. If you aren't seeing a virus warning, it probably means the attachments are safe.

Make sure your Windows Explorer is set to show file extensions. The default on recent operating systems is to "Hide extensions for known file types" so that a file named badstuff.txt.vbs would only appear as badstuff.txt when you saw the attachment. With the system set to show all extensions you would see that it was a vbs file trying to look harmless.