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Have you ever wanted to trick your friends by sending them fake emails? You could
[edit] Steps
1. Open a command prompt by clicking Start, Run, and type cmd in the box and
2. You will need an SMTP server address to proceed. Here is how to find one:
hazemdesigns.srhost.info.
address.
3. Type telnet aspmx.l.google.com 25. 25 is the port number most SMTP servers
4. When the mail server responds, you can start typing SMTP commands.
5. Start with helo blahblah.google.com. You may have to use your ISP's domain
6. If it says 'at your service' or something like that, continue with the
address you want the mail to come FROM. So, to forge mail from Bill Gates, type
7. If it says OK, type who you want the mail to go to, i.e. your friends
3. Continue typing your message, such as 'I'm bill gates and want to send
4. Put a single period (.) on a line by itself and press Enter to send
your message. The server should say 'Message accepted for delivery'.
9. You are done. You have just forged an email, and the recipient should be
receiving it shortly.
10. You can test to see if a given SMTP server is configured for forwarding by
[edit] Tips
* ZMail, an open-source application for linux, windows, and mac, does all of
this for you. All you have to do is enter the from-address, the to-address, an smtp
* This site provides a list of SMTP servers, provided by google, that work
* if you do not see the letters you type in your terminal application use the
echo command.
* Practice sending the message to yourself a few times until you get the hang
of it.
* Send it to yourself and view all the headers to make sure nothing that easily
identifies you as the sender (like your computer name) shows up.
* Servers which run enhanced SMTP will also accept 'ehlo blahblah.isp.com'. You
may still need to use your ISP's domain name for it to be accepted.
* It is normally easier just to find one of the many free websites that will
* As mentioned in the warnings, most SMTP servers have relaying disabled. Many
times you can overcome this by connecting to the ISP of the target email, since the
* If you use Windows telnet client and make a spelling mistake do not use the
and try again. The backspace key is transmitted incorrectly and will result in odd
including John Gilmore, a long time Internet "personality" and one of the founders
of the The Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a result most ISPs do not accept mail
[edit] Warnings
* This method of forging email may not work at times. Almost all Internet
service providers' SMTP servers and some private SMTP servers require
with an SMTP server, but you'll need to read RFC 2554 to learn how. Also, an SMTP
amount of effort is required for a diligent party to positively identify you as the
sender.
* All that your ISP and law enforcement needs to do is look at the email
headers and see the date/time and IP address the message came from. You can then be
held accountable for any harm you may have caused by your email.
* Some U.S. states now have laws against fraudulent email, especially when tied