False "Undeliverable" Messages

[obillo]

Yesterday I sent a copy of a book review (cut/pasted from Amazon) to a
publicist. Later got a bounce-back from "host mx8.webfaction.com"
w/explanation "User unknown in virtual alias table." This seemed odd, as I'd
sent my message through "contact us" at the publicist's website. So I sent a
follow-up to the publicist, asking "did you receive my review?" That was
bounced for the same reason.

And yet the publicist confirmed receipt of BOTH messages. Further, the first
message, containing the review, came back with two attachments that I had NOT
sent. One contained an image of five stars. That makes sense--I had included
the five-star rating when I cut/pasted into the body of my e-mail, so I guess
somehow my Outlook 2003 automatically made that into a gif file. The other
attachment was called image002.gif (231 B). Opening it took me to Microsoft
Office Picture Manager and a gray screen with a tiny box in the middle, and
in the box a red checkmark. I can't open that so I don't know what it is.

So my questions are: what's going on? Have I got a virus? If this weirdness
likely to spread when I send other e-mails? How can I tell whether future
Undeliverable messages are false?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

So my questions are: what's going on? Have I got a virus? If this weirdness
likely to spread when I send other e-mails? How can I tell whether future
Undeliverable messages are false?

I'd say the publicist's mail server has a misconfiguration.

 

[Nikki Peterson]

I wonder what Anti-Virus (AV) Solution is used by the fellow you are
sending your mail to?

I ask because an AV on a server will break apart your message, check
it, then put it back together when it is done and send it along.

I wonder if something is going "awry" in the AV system that is sending you
the NDR (Non Delivery Report) and yet delivering the message to the
recipient.

Nikki

Yesterday I sent a copy of a book review (cut/pasted from Amazon) to a
publicist. Later got a bounce-back from "host mx8.webfaction.com"
w/explanation "User unknown in virtual alias table." This seemed odd, as
I'd
sent my message through "contact us" at the publicist's website. So I sent a
follow-up to the publicist, asking "did you receive my review?" That was
bounced for the same reason.

And yet the publicist confirmed receipt of BOTH messages. Further, the first
message, containing the review, came back with two attachments that I had
NOT
sent. One contained an image of five stars. That makes sense--I had included
the five-star rating when I cut/pasted into the body of my e-mail, so I
guess
somehow my Outlook 2003 automatically made that into a gif file. The other
attachment was called image002.gif (231 B). Opening it took me to Microsoft
Office Picture Manager and a gray screen with a tiny box in the middle, and
in the box a red checkmark. I can't open that so I don't know what it is.

So my questions are: what's going on? Have I got a virus? If this weirdness
likely to spread when I send other e-mails? How can I tell whether future
Undeliverable messages are false?