Odd msg received from list

[Verde Denim]

I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
like this?

--
Regards

Jack
Boston Tea Party, Coercive Acts, Powder Alarm, Revolution
Lessons (Mistakes) not learned are bound to be repeated.

[Joel Goldstick]

> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

I got the same message. It hasn't happened to me lately but I think
this also happened maybe a couple of years ago.

--
Joel Goldstick
http://joelgoldstick.com

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 12:53 AM, Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
> like this?

Yes, I did too. I don't think it has anything to do with the number of
posts you make; it'll be to do with the number that get sent to you,
and it looks like it may be something to do with gmail. I tossed an
email to the list-owner address and it's being looked into; you'll
probably need to mark your address as active again. (In case you
haven't yet done that, I'm doing something I almost never do and
including the OP in the To: list. Please don't take this as a
precedent; normally, just reply to the list and let the sender get a
copy through that.)

ChrisA

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.2591.1384437...@python.org>,

Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
> like this?

This sounds like a variation of a classic phishing scam. You get an
email which looks official, telling you that some account you have has
been suspended because you need to verify some information. The wording
of the message is always vague about exactly what account this is.

Don't click on any of the links. At best, they're harvesting email
addresses. At worst, they're harvesting personal information which can
be used for identity theft, credit card fraud, or all sorts of
malfeasance.

Here's some recent examples from my junk mailbox:

> Attention User;
> Your email Quota is almost exceeded. We are currently doing a maintenance on
> our server. Please, Visit page below to update your account and avoid losing
> your inbox.
> �
> [link elided]
>
> Thank you,
> Technical Team

and another:

> Dear Client,
>
>
> This is an automatic message by the system to let you know that you have to
> confirm your account information within 48 hours.
> Your account has been frozen temporarily in order to protect it.
> The account will continue to be frozen until it is approved And Validate Your
> Account Information.
> Once you have updated your account records, your information will be
> confirmed and your account will start to work as normal once again.
> �This will help protect you in the future. The process does not take more
> than 3 minutes.
>
> To proceed to confirm your account information please click on the link below
> and follow the instructions that will be required.
> �
> Click Here To Verfiy Your Account info
> �
> � 2013 All rights reserved.

[MRAB]

On 14/11/2013 13:53, Verde Denim wrote:
> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
> like this?
>

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with spam filtering.

If you're using a spam filter (it might be offered as a feature by your
ISP) that bounces instead of just deleting, and the spam looks like it
comes from or through the list, then the list would receive those
bounces without you being aware of it.

[Tim Golden]

On 14/11/2013 13:53, Verde Denim wrote:
> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
> like this?
>

I can confirm that your account has been suspended because bounces. That
is: as a moderator, I can view your record in the interface and see that
it has been tagged as such. I can't tell you any more, I'm afraid; I've
just emailed the other list owners to see if someone has a handle on why
this has happened to a number of @gmail.com users today.

TJG

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 1:11 AM, Roy Smith <r...@panix.com> wrote:
> In article <mailman.2591.1384437...@python.org>,
> Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
>> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
>> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
>> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my
>> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
>> like this?
>
> This sounds like a variation of a classic phishing scam. You get an
> email which looks official, telling you that some account you have has
> been suspended because you need to verify some information. The wording
> of the message is always vague about exactly what account this is.
>
> Don't click on any of the links. At best, they're harvesting email
> addresses. At worst, they're harvesting personal information which can
> be used for identity theft, credit card fraud, or all sorts of
> malfeasance.
>

I agree in general, but I happen to be pretty familiar with Mailman
alerts, and this one was genuine. Also, it pointed to what does appear
to be the right address (mail.python.org). There's definitely
something going around that's causing problems for gmail users; maybe
spam is getting bounced/rejected instead of being dropped?

ChrisA

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 1:24 AM, MRAB <pyt...@mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
> I'm wondering if it has anything to do with spam filtering.
>
> If you're using a spam filter (it might be offered as a feature by your
> ISP) that bounces instead of just deleting, and the spam looks like it
> comes from or through the list, then the list would receive those
> bounces without you being aware of it.

I hadn't read your post when I typed up my own. You said everything I
was saying about spam, only better and sooner. :)

ChrisA

[Joost Molenaar]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone else received a message like this?

I did too. It seems to me that Gmail's spam filter might have been overly
enthusiastic, but the only way to find out is to look at the bounces
that the list
software received.

Yesterday I also received a warning from the debian-laptop mailing list program.

Joost

[Gisle Vanem]

"Chris Angelico" <ros...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree in general, but I happen to be pretty familiar with Mailman
> alerts, and this one was genuine. Also, it pointed to what does appear
> to be the right address (mail.python.org). There's definitely
> something going around that's causing problems for gmail users;

It happended to me too. And I'm a Yahoo user. I clicked the MailMan
confirmation link and all emails seems to be received now (comparing
to what's on the NNTP group).

--gv

[Terry Reedy]

On 11/14/2013 9:26 AM, Tim Golden wrote:

> On 14/11/2013 13:53, Verde Denim wrote:
>> I got an odd message this morning from the list telling me that my
>> account was de-activated due to excessive bounces. I've only sent a
>> handful of messages to this board, but do read an awful lot of the posts
>> in order to learn more about the language. The message also listed my

>> account password, which I found odd. Has anyone else received a message
>> like this?
>>
>

> I can confirm that your account has been suspended because bounces. That
> is: as a moderator, I can view your record in the interface and see that
> it has been tagged as such. I can't tell you any more, I'm afraid; I've
> just emailed the other list owners to see if someone has a handle on why
> this has happened to a number of @gmail.com users today.

It has since been discovered and announced elsewhere on this list that
the problem was a post 'from' unknown.org which google rejected.

--
Terry Jan Reedy

[Gregory Ewing]

Verde Denim wrote:
> The message also listed my
> account password, which I found odd.

You mean the message contained your actual password,
in plain text? That's not just odd, it's rather worrying
for at least two reasons. First, what business does a
message like that have carrying a password, and second,
it means the server must be keeping passwords in a
readable form somewhere, which is a really bad idea.

--
Greg

[Chris “Kwpolska” Warrick]

>From the info page at https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list:

> You may enter a privacy password below. This provides only mild
> security, but should prevent others from messing with your
> subscription. **Do not use a valuable password** as it will
> occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext.

> If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically
> generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed
> your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your
> password when you edit your personal options. Once a month, your
> password will be emailed to you as a reminder.

--
Chris “Kwpolska” Warrick <http://kwpolska.tk>
PGP: 5EAAEA16
stop html mail | always bottom-post | only UTF-8 makes sense

[Verde Denim]

Chris
Yes, I mean precisely that. The password was sent to me in the body of
the message in plaintext. That is what has me very concerned about the
list and its ability to protect private information.

Regards

Jack

On 11/15/2013 02:48 PM, Chris “Kwpolska” Warrick wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 12:30 AM, Gregory Ewing
> <greg....@canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:

> From the info page at https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list:
>
>> You may enter a privacy password below. This provides only mild
>> security, but should prevent others from messing with your
>> subscription. **Do not use a valuable password** as it will
>> occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext.
>> If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically
>> generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed
>> your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your
>> password when you edit your personal options. Once a month, your
>> password will be emailed to you as a reminder.

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Chris
> Yes, I mean precisely that. The password was sent to me in the body of
> the message in plaintext. That is what has me very concerned about the
> list and its ability to protect private information.

The list specifically told you not to use a valuable password :) In
fact, a password is completely optional - it's just an alternative to
always having to do a click-through.

ChrisA

[Verde Denim]

ChrisA
Each one of my accounts is completely different (and as random as I can
get them). Each one is also uniquely set to match a set of criteria of
my own choosing to indicate level of data, level of composite data,
level of integrity, level of criticality, and a few other 'soft values'.
This equates to each account being generated in a one-off fashion, so
I'm not worried that my list account here will ever show up somewhere
else in any other form. However, that doesn't mean that it doesn't
concern me that the list is publishing these values back to the list
participant(s) in plaintext. If I have to unsubscribe and then
re-subscribe without a pass-phrase I can do that but just wanted to make
the list admin(s) aware that it had occurred.

[Ned Deily]

In article <5288239D...@gmail.com>, Verde Denim <tdl...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Each one of my accounts is completely different (and as random as I can
> get them). Each one is also uniquely set to match a set of criteria of
> my own choosing to indicate level of data, level of composite data,
> level of integrity, level of criticality, and a few other 'soft values'.
> This equates to each account being generated in a one-off fashion, so
> I'm not worried that my list account here will ever show up somewhere
> else in any other form. However, that doesn't mean that it doesn't
> concern me that the list is publishing these values back to the list
> participant(s) in plaintext. If I have to unsubscribe and then
> re-subscribe without a pass-phrase I can do that but just wanted to make
> the list admin(s) aware that it had occurred.

Sending password reminders is a standard default of the venerable Mailman
mailing list software that powers Python-list and many other mailing lists.
You can visit the member options page and change the password and/or disable
the automatic reminders:

https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-list

--
Ned Deily,
n...@acm.org