# Something odd in email received from iPhone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2011, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662 "2011-05-21T07:43:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/1 "2011-05-21T07:43:37Z")
I got an email from a friend of mine a little while ago. He sent it from his iPhone, and it wasn’t a forwarded message. It was a personal note to me. In the middle of the text of the message were three identical links to a porn site- at least that’s what the links looked like (all three to “girlswhof\*[ck.com](http://ck.com)”). Of course, I didn’t click on the links. This is a professional friend, an elderly gentleman, and I don’t know whether to call this to his attention or not. I’m not offended, and if this means he’s looking at porn on his iPhone, that’s way fine by me. I don’t want to embarrass him by blowing his cover. But if this means his email is infected with something, I’d like to tell him. He does have an automatic signature- just his first name- and his name was embedded in the third link. I looked at the full header and it did say iPhone Mail at the bottom. How would links like that get into someone’s outgoing iPhone email? Should I say something or discreetly keep it to myself? If the above is not clear, it was like this: text text text text _pornLink_ _pornLink_ Name\*pornLink \* (No space between his name and the third link) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/2 "2011-05-21T14:34:10Z")
I emailed him and said there was something weird with his email and could he resend it. He replied that in his sent file, the text of the email was cut off and porn links inserted, and that was “unintended and unexplained.” How would something like this get into someone’s sent email? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/3 "2011-05-21T15:19:34Z")
Is his phone jailbroken? Who is is email provider? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/4 "2011-05-21T15:26:22Z")
I don’t know what jailbroken means. He has gmail. Okay… I looked up jailbroken. From what I understand, I’d say no. He’s not techie and probably wouldn’t know about this or want to do it. (If I understand what it is.) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/5 "2011-05-21T15:30:58Z")
Jailbreaking is a way to install non-Apple-approved apps. It’s a popular thing to do, but it leaves the user vulnerable to malware. A Google search turns up several theoretical attacks against Gmail, including this [one](http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-threats/2008/10/07/free-tool-automates-attacks-on-gmail-facebook-39499499/), which could explain what you are seeing. I don’t know if any of these attacks were ever widespread, or if Google has patched their vulnerability. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/6 "2011-05-21T16:19:51Z")
I’m pretty sure he hasn’t installed any rogue apps. Thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-odd-in-email-received-from-iphone/582662/7 "2011-05-21T18:37:39Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I got an email from a friend of mine a little while ago. He sent it from his iPhone, and it wasn’t a forwarded message. It was a personal note to me. In the middle of the text of the message were three identical links to a porn site- at least that’s what the links looked like (all three to “girlswhof\*[ck.com](http://ck.com)”). Of course, I didn’t click on the links. This is a professional friend, an elderly gentleman, and I don’t know whether to call this to his attention or not. I’m not offended, and if this means he’s looking at porn on his iPhone, that’s way fine by me. I don’t want to embarrass him by blowing his cover. But if this means his email is infected with something, I’d like to tell him. He does have an automatic signature- just his first name- and his name was embedded in the third link. I looked at the full header and it did say iPhone Mail at the bottom. How would links like that get into someone’s outgoing iPhone email? Should I say something or discreetly keep it to myself? > > If the above is not clear, it was like this: > > text text text text > _pornLink_ > _pornLink_ > Name\*pornLink \* (No space between his name and the third link) That sounds like someone got his password, got into his account, and hacked his signature. If so, the solution would obviously be to change his password and signature. It would probably be easier to do on a regular computer, but you might be able to do it on the phone.