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  • How to Fake Mail


    Fake mail is e-mail which appears to be from someone other than the actual sender.

    Fake mail was initially usually used to stage practical jokes, but is now utilized primarily by e-mail spammers.

    How to Send Fake Mail

    To send fake mail, first `telnet` to port 25 of the machine you want the fake mail to appear to originate from. This will connect you directly to the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) daemon running on that host.

    Next, enter SMTP commands by typing them directly to the SMTP daemon.

    Enter your SMTP message as in this example, which sends a fake mail message to the President from barry.goldwater@heaven.org:


    HELO heaven.org
    MAIL FROM: <barry.goldwater@heaven.org>
    RCPT TO: <president@whitehouse.gov>
    DATA
    Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 12:16:35 -0500 (EST)
    From: barry.goldwater@heaven.org (Barry Goldwater)
    To: president@whitehouse.gov
    Subject: Patriot Act
    Reply-To: barry.goldwater@heaven.org

    George:

    The Patriot Act is a horrible idea.

    Make war against our nations enemies, not our nations people.

    Barry
    .
    QUIT

    On systems that have RFC 931 – Authentication server implemented, spoofing your “MAIL FROM:” line will not work. Test by sending yourself fake mail first.

    Newer SMTP daemons, such as smail 3.1.29.1+ or sendmail 8.7+, perform an identd check when you connect to them. These SMTP daemons are impossible to completely spoof without first spoofing identd.

    For more information on SMTP, read RFC 2822 – Internet Message Format.

    Note that the headers inside the DATA statement should be optional, but are actually required by some mailers. Even when not required, they often help your fake mail message appear genuine.

    Finding a Mail Server to Send Fake Mail Through

    To send fake mail, you will need to find a mail server.

    To locate an SMTP server for a domain, use `nslookup` and set your query type to MX.

    This will look something like this:


    $ nslookup
    Default Server: localhost.net
    Address: 127.0.0.1
    > set type=mx
    > example.com
    Server: localhost.net
    Address: 127.0.0.1
    Non-authoritative answer:
    example.com preference = 15, mail exchanger = smtp-03.mx.example.com
    example.com preference = 15, mail exchanger = smtp-04.mx.example.com
    example.com preference = 15, mail exchanger = smtp-01.mx.example.com
    example.com preference = 15, mail exchanger = smtp-02.mx.example.com

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    3 comments
    1. Bookworm

      14 July, 2015 at 4:58 pm

      And just why would you want to publish this to the entire world.. Aren’t you condoning spamming and as a result a spammer yourself?

      Reply
    2. ken

      2 June, 2013 at 10:59 pm

      Most places wont let you telnet to port 25 anymore from what I have seen.

      Reply
    3. fake email

      13 March, 2011 at 12:51 pm

      you can use a good <a “href=http://www.stop-my-spam.com/”>fakemail</a>

      Reply
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