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You've checked your machine with the latest version of anti-
virus software. You've called the Helpdesk, and they sent
someone over who gave your computer a clean bill of health. Yet,
you still receive messages accusing you of spreading viruses to
others via e-mail. Why? The reason may be due to any number of
viruses that cleverly "spoof" or fake the return addresses on
the loaded e-mails they send. Such viruses gather e-mail
addresses from the infected machine, choosing one to list as the
destination (To:) and one to "spoof" (fake) as the sender
(From:). Most mail systems will let you put anything down as the
sender (From:)address without validating or authenticating it.
So, someone else's macchine is spreading a virus but you get the
notification because the virus found your e-mail address on the
infected system. To explain further, here is a sample scenario.
Let's say firstname.lastname@example.org contracts a virus like
MiMail. Some time after