The United States Navy

Why am I being Spammed
from a Navy e-mail address?

We can safely say that in 99% of the cases, based on the complaints we have received, that the Spam e-mail is not coming from or through Navy servers. Spammers are sending out this type of unsolicited and often pornographic e-mail with a spoofed Navy e-mail address. That is to say, the e-mail address is bogus, and no Navy server is actually involved because they are faking the e-mail. Since there is no contact with actual Navy servers, we can do nothing to stop it because they are not in any way accessing our systems. We do empathize with you and express our sympathy for any inconvenience. (We get dozens of these e-mails a day ourselves!)

We might be able to determine where the spammed e-mail is originating by looking at the header information. Here is an example of an e-mail header with the spoofed Navy domain and its supposed IP address in red:
X-Message-Info: JGTYoYF78jEHjJx36Oi8+Q1OJDRSDidP
Received: from navy.mil ([211.109.68.225]) by mc2-f22.law16.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5600); Wed, 4 Jun 2003 22:23:18 -0700
Message-ID: <3626986b6a9c$9b020584$834df761@39svzw3>
From: "XXXX" (real names deleted)
To: jxxxxx@hotmail.com (real names deleted)
Subject: Let’s work something out
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 05:25:14 +0000
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
Return-Path: xxxud@cnc.net
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Jun 2003 05:23:19.0771 (UTC) FILETIME=[935CA2B0:01C32B22]

If you provide us that header, we'll look up the IP address (that's this number — 211.109.68.225 — in red above) and tell you to whom that IP is registered. The example is from a company in Korea and not from the Navy as the e-mail says. Send your e-mail to comments@chinfo.navy.mil

Effective date: 5 June 2003


Return to the "Questions about the Navy" page.