Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 09:54:07 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
        WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Email geekery
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 1/30/2006 12:08 AM, Barry L. Newton wrote:

>Question is, how did they do that?  It's the same freakin' email
>address.  Is there some kind of code you can hide in an email that
>says:  "Do n't forward me?

There can be things in the header that are used to prevent e-mail loops
that might, at least in theory, account for this, but we'd have to see the
headers and know how the mail servers are set up to tell for sure.

It's more likely that it's anti-spam software of some sort that's
involved.  When you set up the forwarding address did you include any
"filtering" or "spam prevention" settings?  Does the ISP do that
automatically for all mail coming through their system?

If the message from Paypal had HTML in it, a "click here to unsubscribe" or
other links, included certain words in the subject line, or a bunch of
other items that tend to stimulate anti-spam filters, the mail was probably
sent by Paypal and received by the forwarding system, but is stuck there in
an anti-spam filter, or just got deleted.

It's also possible that the forwarding system has Paypal's IP range in a
black-hole list due to too much spam coming from it...or mail that looks
like spam (lots of the same message coming from one IP can do that, and
Paypal does send out ad messages to users from time to time).

Checking with the ISP that runs the forwarding system is one way to tell if
any of these things might be responsible, and might indicate how to change
things so it will work as you wanted it to.

-- Mike B.
--
If you think it's butter, but it's not...it's time to clean the refrigerator.