Email sent to and from no address

Recently I received an Email, obviously sent by a Bot without a From and TO address . All the Email API's I've worked required at least the from address and To address

So i really don't know how the following happened

alt text

How is that possible How can someone or (some Bot) send an email with literally no From and To Addresses

(if you cant see the image: it is a screen shot showing the "From" and "TO" addresses being literally blank)

Are there any API that allow this functionality

I've even Checked the Mail header its says

From nobody Thu Jan 28 13:02:14 2010
X-Apparently-To:
vivek_bluestar@yahoo.co.in via
203.104.17.150; Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:09:14 -0800 Return-Path:

X-YMailISG:

Vivek Bernard

Posted 2010-01-30T18:00:49.700

Reputation: 113

Image isn't working – driis – 2010-01-30T18:02:45.467

@driis give it a little time.... – Vivek Bernard – 2010-01-30T18:04:24.700

1You might want to mask your e-mail above :) – None – 2010-01-30T18:06:44.027

@Kordonme I would, but it is already filled with crap :) – Vivek Bernard – 2010-01-30T18:14:09.343

And this is programming-related, how...? – None – 2010-01-30T18:29:33.740

@Aaronaught It is because, i wanted to know if there were any API's or libraries that allowed us to send emails with or without out some parameters, but what i was, intrigued about was the fact that the mail had no From and To addresses – Vivek Bernard – 2010-01-31T02:36:18.707

Answers

Have a look at :

http://db.ilug-bom.org.in/lug-authors/philip/docs/mail-stuff/smtp-intro.html

The sender can put anything he wants in the To and From headers. The SMTP server will deliver to the address defined with RCPT TO command. If your spam filter or mail server doesn't block it, it will get delivered.

driis

Posted 2010-01-30T18:00:49.700

Reputation: 746

You can enter what you want in the From: field of an e-mail. Most SMTP libraries should support this.

Håvard S

Posted 2010-01-30T18:00:49.700

Reputation:

You mean I never need to specify From and to addresses – Vivek Bernard – 2010-01-30T18:04:54.123

No. I mean you can specify whatever you like. :) – None – 2010-01-30T18:10:26.247

It is probably possible to write an email like this in code although I have never tried it. You can also talk to email servers directly and create email on them using telnet. There are many examples on the web, one is here.

Beaner

Posted 2010-01-30T18:00:49.700

Reputation: 3 193