Wes' Puzzling Blog

Same Problem and no Idea what it could be...

Besides development, I also run a small ISP, so I see (and hear about this) a lot. Older versions of Outlook "freeze up" when you get a faulty header in the email and prevent downloading the rest of your mail, so I believe this is an attempt to do just that.

I know there's a new tactic being used, but I haven't figured out what it is specifically, but I do have a few clients which are encountering problems with this new round of blank emails. I had put a script to weed out the bad headers on my email server (Merak), but this new round seems to be getting through my filter.

I'm running the latest version of Outlook (2003 with SP1). Thanks for the explanation that sounds reasonable and may actually still be the problem. I will see if I can figure anything out.

Wes, I got them all the time with my old BSD-based provider, but haven't gotten a single blank since I dropped that account (after 10 years) and went exclusively with a Windows provider. I forgot how frustrating that was until I read your post. Let us know what happens!

seems simple to me, someone searching for valid email addreses of people who open spam email with certain topics. send a million emails with viagra in the subject line, get returns from only those who open the emails. then send the spam advertising to only those who may be interested. cuts down on complaints to their hosts, isp and email providers. just a thought.

jimmy neal, spam hater

i gettum too they seem sinister somehow

I have an interesting twist to this puzzle. I get empty messages, but only when they are displayed. All the blank messages that I receive are actually legitimate email and when I click REPLY, I can actually see the content of the message. Some odd quirk but I don't have a reason for it. Some messages come through fine others do not, and I have yet to determine the difference.

Hmm... outlookand private ISPs..... that's all fine and dandy.... but i receive them in yahoo and gmail, accessed either by IE or Firefox... What do you think about that....?

For Outlook 2003 one point of confusion - when inserting the vowels and maybe f (for fw:) you have to do them one at a time, ie., a then add, e then add, etc. If you do them at once it puts double quotes around the whole thing as one string.

Yes the spam comes through Thunderbird too with an independent ISP. The spam is smart enough to use the name of someone you want to get email from. Then you open it thinking it is from a friend. They have blank bodies but the subject is always spam. Just a new technique, just ignore them or report them to

spam@ftc.gov

(Federal Trade Commission investigates spammers).

I get them too using Apple OSX. I use the Comcast mail service & over the past 6 month I have 6 of my regular corespondees messages start to arrive empty. Once it begins I no longer can receive their messages--just the header & attachment lines.

I have had them attach a copy of their message to get around the problem. It happens if I use Safari or Netscape, from my home computer or at work.

I spoke with Comcast &  they don't know why. I was looking for common threads & had considered Apple OS X as one but Apple won't talk to me unless I pay them $50--& then from the other comments, here, I sense it may not be an Apple thing. I tried calling Microsoft but when they heard I didn't own an MS product they hung up on me. I think that all of the people (sendees) who I have this problem with are using MS Outlook Express--one more to hear back from.

I hope that my experiences add a few more clues but I would be happier if the companies, especially, MS would take it more seriously. Anyone else had better experiences with MS Tech Support?

empty e mail messages! I cant foreward any email they arrive at the new location with blank message area.This started with the new aol e mail program. any help out there.My son says the same thing is happening onreceived emails from other people.He can foreward e mails ok.just get blanks from aol .

I have started receiving an unbelievable number of these messages suddenly and can't figure out why someone would send an empty message.

I am using a Win XP computer, IE and Firefox Browsers, I do not use Outlook or Outlook Express and have been receiving them on a web email address (yahoo.com).  

What purpose does it serve to send a message with nothing in it to someone you don't know?  Is it to just slow the internet down and make our inboxes even more congested with junk/spam/trash to sift through and delete?

I always see "don't open emails from people you don't know", but I can't avoid all messages or I'll miss a lot of things that could be very important.

I am extremely careful to NEVER click links in an unknown (and even most known) sender's messages, as well as never opening an attachment from an unknown sender - along with scanning everything in advance from even my most known and trusted senders.  So what could possibly happen if I only click the subject line, open the message and look inside?  Does yahoo send a "receipt" to the sender that I've opened it?  That would let them know that it's a valid address and then spamming would commence, but if not, what purpose could it serve??  Can someone explain this madness to me??

Thanks!

My inbox is empty and yesterday I had messages.  Anyone know how to fix this???

G'day folks,

I work for a newspapers here in sunny Oz and have recently had the same problem with our group email server. Checking the sent folder in Outlook straight after the email is sent shows up a blank email.

Interesting thing is that only a handful (6-7 at last count) of users experience this problem out of a user base of about 168.

Originally I thought it might have something to do ActiveX controls as a lot of the text of info is cut n pasted from our intranet and sent out to our customers.

V. puzzling indeed. Any info gladly received.

Ian

nortimunki@gmail.com

I only get these from aol, my gmail and yahoo accounts so far are fine.  I know the messages are legitimate.  I can go back later or sometimes not til the next day and they open with the content intact.  I wish someone could figure this out.  It is almost like the message hasn't fully arrived and then later it finishes and is there when opened.

I have a VERY similar problem, but just a little different.  The SENDER of some e-mails that go to about 30-40 people gets complaints from a few recepients that her e-mail is blank.  Very strange.

Such a relief to read this - I've been having a problem with bounced spam that's been sent out via a foreign IP using my email address & have had to take a sudden deep interest in my junk folder. When I noticed these "empty" emails I thought they might be some sinister virus vehicle ... they are totally blank apart from the date: 01-01-1970. Brrrrr.

But it seems they're just a glitch or an anomally and I can just keep deleting them. For what it's worth I only get them in Mozilla Thunderbird, not Gmail. I don't use Outlook.

I AM GETTING ABOUT 5 BLANK EMAILS A DAY.  SOME ARE FORM LIGITIMATE USERS. I AM PERPLEXED ON WHAT MIGHT BE CAUSING THIS AS WELL.  SOMETIMES IF I HIT REPLY THIS ALLOW ME TO VIEW THE EMAIL. SOMETIMES THAT DOES NOT WORK.GO FIGURE!IF ANY ONE HAS A SOLUTION, I WOULD BE GLAD TO HEAR IT.  

I am the one sending blank emails.  Only problem is I am not sending them it is an auto thing once I get one from someone it sends them a blank from my computer.  I have had that happen when I am not at my computer it is off and I am at someone elses computer sending something to myself.  In comes an blank email to the friend???  How to solve this is a mystery.

I get these as well. If you expand the header you see they are coming from this company: ceolysis.com

Their site is just a facade. If no matter how you get to it if you hit "unsubscribe" it tells you that you've been dropped from the list. Of course nothing of the such has happened and you keep getting them.

I have sent a notice to the FBI on them, for what good it will do

I am using Mac Leopard and Mac Mail through Comcast and I have started getting these blank emails. No matter what I do, I cannot find content.

Any ideas?

Started checking into these - I use "long headers" or "raw source" to get idea of where these are coming from and what's going on. So far, Italy is a source for mine, with spoofs of my mailserver at Apple (random sender, my account). I haven't determined "call back" function, although there might be when I've used "Reply" to check for text. Mac OSX Leopard Mail, DotMac/MobileMe service. I think I'm getting these on other services' accounts as well - check those, too. Is there a place somewhere where we can past the raw source? (Substituting something like "MYEMAIL" in place of our email? Thanks!

Example:

Return-path: <>

Received: from smtpin131-bge351000 ([10.150.68.131])

by ms264.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26

2008; 64bit)) with ESMTP id <0KGM005WO00MAAD0@ms264.mac.com> for

MYEMAIL; Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:17:10 -0700 (PDT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;MYEMAIL

Received: from host223-176-dynamic.53-79-r.retail.telecomitalia.it

([79.53.176.223])

by smtpin131.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec

16 2008; 32bit)) with SMTP id <0KGM00KIR00JXU90@smtpin131.mac.com> for

MYEMAIL (ORCPT MYEMAIL); Mon,

16 Mar 2009 10:17:10 -0700 (PDT)

X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA==

Date-warning: Date header was inserted by smtpin131.mac.com

Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:17:10 -0700 (PDT)

Message-id: <0KGM00KIZ00KXU90@smtpin131.mac.com>

Received: from ccivho ([141.98.60.64])

by host223-176-dynamic.53-79-r.retail.telecomitalia.it with Microsoft

SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5329); Mon,

16 Mar 2009 18:07:00 +0100Message-ID: <002201c9a659$9ec43a10$8d623c40@lucianomyvtbf3ccivho>From:

"Joseph" <kazda.joan@progressive.in>To: <MYEMAIL>Subject: Bomb

killed 18 citizensDate: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:05:37 +0100MIME-Version:

1.0Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="windows-1250";

reply-type=originalContent-Transfer-Encoding: 7bitX-Priority:

3X-MSMail-Priority: NormalX-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express

5.50.4807.1700X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700Are you

in the city now? bvlqv.breakingnewsfm.com/print.php

To: Undisclosed recipients: ;

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