[GerryLowry1\(905\)825-9582{AbilityBusinessComputer]

"Some pictures have been blocked to help prevent the sender from identifying your computer. Click
here to download the pictures."

Why does the above message sometimes occur between the "Subject:" field and the body of some e-mail
messages?

More specifically, if I manually look at the underlying contents via Properties, Details, Message
Source, what specifically does Outlook Express discover in the message that leads to the conclusion
that the sender might be able to identify my computer?

thank you ... regards, gerry

[PA Bear]

Added security in SP2.

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Email
Handling
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2email.mspx

Tools > Options > Security > Download images > ...
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE) & Security

GerryLowry1(905)825-9582{AbilityBusinessComputerServices) wrote:
> "Some pictures have been blocked to help prevent the sender from
> identifying your computer. Click here to download the pictures."
>
> Why does the above message sometimes occur between the "Subject:" field
> and
> the body of some e-mail messages?
>
> More specifically, if I manually look at the underlying contents via
> Properties, Details, Message Source, what specifically does Outlook
> Express
> discover in the message that leads to the conclusion that the sender might
> be able to identify my computer?
>
> thank you ... regards, gerry

[GerryLowry1\(905\)825-9582{AbilityBusinessComputer]

Thank you, Robear ... the lengthy article is quite an interesting read ...

does anyone know whether it is possible to download the pictures
without confirming that one's e-mail address is valid?

Since "http://xmzmail.net/080E15 ... long hex string ... 20E08.aspx" appears
with an "img" tag, I assume that it is the offending string.

Also, I wonder whether Microsoft is able to successfully defeat the spammers
by blocking only pictures. The offending string appears in the particular
e-mail in 8 other instances where it is NOT associated with an img tag.

g.

"PA Bear" <PABearMVP@gmail.com> wrote:
"Added security in SP2.
Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2: Email Handling
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2email.mspx"
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE) & Security

GerryLowry1(905)825-9582{AbilityBusinessComputerServices) wrote:
> "Some pictures have been blocked to help prevent the sender from
> identifying your computer. Click here to download the pictures."
>
> Why does the above message sometimes occur between the "Subject:" field
> and
> the body of some e-mail messages?
>
> More specifically, if I manually look at the underlying contents via
> Properties, Details, Message Source, what specifically does Outlook
> Express
> discover in the message that leads to the conclusion that the sender might
> be able to identify my computer?
>
> thank you ... regards, gerry

[N. Miller]

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:48:30 -0400,
Gerry_DOT_Lowry@AbilityBusinessComputerServices_DOT_com@newsgroups.nospam
wrote:

> Thank you, Robear ... the lengthy article is quite an interesting read ...
>
> does anyone know whether it is possible to download the pictures
> without confirming that one's e-mail address is valid?

It is not possible to download an image from the remote server without that
server identifying the source of the request. If you fetch the image, they
will know that you were there.

> Since "http://xmzmail.net/080E15 ... long hex string ... 20E08.aspx" appears
> with an "img" tag, I assume that it is the offending string.

Correct. Especially if they have used a unique code in the URL; one that
could only be associated to a given email.

> Also, I wonder whether Microsoft is able to successfully defeat the spammers
> by blocking only pictures. The offending string appears in the particular
> e-mail in 8 other instances where it is NOT associated with an img tag.

Not just Microsoft. My preferred email client, Pegasus Mail, calls
references to remote images, "Lazy HTML". Pegasus Mail defaults to not
rendering "Lazy HTML" in the email message. I get some subscription email,
which does not offer a plain text option, which displays a lot of shaded
areas lacking content. But this is not "defeating" the spammer in the sense
of stopping the spam; this only prevents the spammer from confirming that
the email account to which the spam was sent is used by a "spam reader".

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint