# What's up with this email message?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020 "2004-10-25T09:00:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/1 "2004-10-25T09:00:11Z")

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I keep getting email messages that look like this:

> [@](#):
>
> From: david@[somedomain].com  
> To: Mangetout@[Mangetout’s Domain].co.uk  
> Subject: Mail Delivery (failure Mangetout@[Mangetout’s Domain].co.uk)  
> Date: Mon 25 Oct 2004 08:44 AM
> 
> If the message will not displayed automatically,  
> follow the link to read the delivered message.
> 
> Received message is available at:  
> www.[Mangetout’s Domain].co.uk/inbox/Mangetout/read.php?sessionid-32286

(square bracketed terms replace real domain names)

Now it’s pretty clear from the bad grammar and general tone of the thing that this was originally a virus-carrying message, but what exactly is the deal? - the link just tries to execute some non-existent code in a non-existent folder in MY webspace - why would anyone bother writing a virus that tries to get people to click on a link to a non-existent target.

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**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/2 "2004-10-25T09:04:54Z")

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> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> …why would anyone bother writing a virus that tries to get people to click on a link to a non-existent target.

I believe the link, which _looks_ like it’s pointing back to your own folder, is actually pointing somewhere else.

Where does this link take you? [http://www.straightdope.com](http://www.msnbc.com)

Surprise!

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/3 "2004-10-25T09:10:24Z")

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I meant to mention that; no - it attempts to take me to the non-existent URL.

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**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/4 "2004-10-25T09:14:45Z")

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> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> I meant to mention that; no - it attempts to take me to the non-existent URL.

Then I’m stumped, too. I guess this is why neither of us is in the spam/virus/worm/trojan business - we just don’t appreciate the subtleties of the craft. 😃

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/5 "2004-10-25T09:20:17Z")

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Ah!

I was viewing the thing on my personal webmail account - it was forwarded there from my mail server at work. The server has stripped off a malicious attachment (message.scr) before forwarding it, which makes a bit more sense of “If the message will not displayed automatically,follow the link to read the delivered message”

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-email-message/271020/6 "2004-10-25T09:22:38Z")

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(That is to say that the thing is trying to persuade me to open the attachment - the link wasn’t inserted by my mail server).