Question: Source code behind FWD email

[CarolAnn]

I keep getting forwarded junk from friends and family members. Sometimes I wonder if they even read it before they hit the forward button.

For kicks, I right clicked on one and clicked on "View Source."

Great balls of fire! There was more than 40 pages of code behind a one paragraph email!

I copied it to a Word document so I could go over it slowly. In it were listed ALL of my personal email folders.

Is this the ultimate spyware, and does it enable outside access to my personal info?

I've also noticed that occasionally all the passwords I have saved to auto-login (like this site) - just disappear and I have to log in again. Does this mean someone can possibly access my passwords?

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I REALLY hate it when my CPU is just cooking away and I'm not doing anything that should make it work. If I've just booted, sometimes it takes 20 minutes before I can do anything because the hard drive is "busy" doing something on it's own. That's why I started trying to dig into things to see what's going on.

I have pretty good antivirus software and use a couple of spyware finders regularly. I turned off "auto update" because it seemed to do more updating than actual work.

Any ideas, or am I just being too picky?

[DV8]

what you are seeing is the full header info, showing the exact route, & time the email passed from their pc to yours... and probably since it was forewarded, this includes the route to them from wherever they got it !! this coding is to allow the transfer points to decide the quickest route to the destination (your inbox).

The security threat comes more from someone on the mass list of ppl they send to obtaining your email address from something that has been forewarded to a bunch of people a few times... after say, 20 forwards, the potential for someone to get your email address is high.. this is how many people recieve spam.

as for your stored passwords not working, that is because something (or your browser is set to auto do it) is deleting your browsers Cache file, & probably removing the cookies your pc stores, which store your login info to sites. Although annoying, it is a good idea to do, not only does it speed up your pc, but having those cookies makes you vunerable to sites spying on your activity & such..

Good Luck,
~DV8

[DV8]

now wait, if you clicked view source, then that is the actual coding of the website. this works on almost every website.

you'll know the coding language because you'll see it refrenced in the opening bracket (first line) such as html or cgi or perl..

what is fun is to alter that same code, in notepad & save it on yer pc in the extension it was be it .html or whatever, & open with internet explorer & see how removing say one bracket will throw a whole site into disarray..

you should also goto your email inbox & try to find where it says show full header... this will show you that in that forewarded email's header info are EVERYBODY's email this was forewarded to all down the line.. then you'll understand the threat.. just imagine one is a spammer...

Also, I reread yer post & suspect yer spyware programs are removing your cookies & clearing your cache... if this is a problem there should be options to disable both functions, but I wouldnt advise it

~DV8

[CarolAnn]

Thanks, DV8!

I understand the header info, but what I didn't like was that it was also naming my PERSONAL email folders in that script - and I have a lot of them! Here's a clip of two:

<li title="Navigate to the backwoods home folder"><a href="/ym/ShowFolder?rb=backwoods%20home&reset=1&YY=21192&y5 beta=yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&vie w=a&head=b" title="Navigate to the backwoods home folder"><div class="icon"></div>backwoods home</a></li>
<li title="Navigate to the job leads folder"><a href="/ym/ShowFolder?rb=job%20leads&reset=1&YY=21192&y5beta= yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&h ead=b" title="Navigate to the job leads folder"><div class="icon"></div>job leads</a></li>
</ul>


I just couldn't figure out why that would show up there. On emails that are not forwarded, the source code is very short and sweet!

It's true that when I dump cookies that all my passwords are gone - but this happens on it's own, too. Maybe it's just my crabby temper that's the problem! (If I don't like how slow my machine is going, sometimes I just hit the "OFF" switch and don't do a full shut down!) I'm probably destabilizing it or something, but it's better than throwing it out a window!! ::)

[DV8]

I would assume it has more to do with the spyware progs cleaning up the cookies than sudden powering down (tho that isnt good either) however, they are simple to backup.

Cookies are stored is in a folder named Cookies which is stored inside the Documents and Settings folder. By default, the path is C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Cookies.

simply copy either the whole cookies folder to another location or create a folder named cookies2 & put those ya wanna keep into it. if it ever fails to see them simply copy/paste the cookie back into the default cookie folder & yer set :)

~DV8