# New form of spam?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-form-of-spam/836221>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-form-of-spam/836221 "2019-06-28T15:21:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-form-of-spam/836221/21 "2019-06-30T16:54:04Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> Technically you can do it but this violates consumer ISPs’ terms of service and they will not like it if you do this. I think you would be blocked pretty quick.I don’t know for sure what this mechanism is but I think it’s more likely that it puts an SMTP client on your machine that sends mail out to an external SMTP server, partly for the reason above.

Depends on how “active” your server is. If it sends out email a few times a day a simple activity count won’t distinguish you from a normal email using person. If the ISP’s software is analyzing the headers of the messages, I’m sure they are not perfect and spammers know how to avoid detection.

It’s like with http service. You can use outgoing port 80 all you want to browse the web. It’s incoming on port 80 that ISP’s like to block.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-form-of-spam/836221/22 "2019-06-30T22:19:03Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> I guess what I’m really asking is how one gets to “those lines before the message.” It all takes place behind the scenes in the programs I’ve used. What is used to pull aside the curtain and gain access?

That’s up to the specific software the person’s using. I’m sure there’s a lot of software which won’t allow anyone to go behind the curtains like that, but other software will.

[For example, the mutt email program will allow you to do it if you sent a line in a configuration file right.](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12158201/how-to-change-the-senders-name-or-e-mail-address-in-mutt) But that’s beside the point, I suppose; the underlying _point_ is that email is just text, any program which edits text can make an email message servers will accept and send along, and a good number of servers aren’t going to blow the whistle on chicanery.

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