What is dtn.ntl.com?

[kai]

I have recently (last few days) been getting many e-mails purporting to be bounced back to me. The bounced messages are all Viagra type spam. Two questions:
(1) How can I find out whether these messages are first generation spam pretending to be bounced, or genuine bounces of spam on which my address was forged?
(2) How does it come about that these messages purport to have originated from, are are bounced back to, myname@dtn.ntl.com, when my real address is myname@ntlworld.com? Out of curiosity I e-mailed myself at the dtn.ntl.com address, and it was delivered to me at my ntlworld address! I seem to have a valid e-mail address I knew nothing about.

I know that ogg raised the dtn.ntl.com question in another thread, and was advised simply to delete the messages as spam. But they had not been bounced, so my question (1) above did not arise in his case. Nor was it explained what dtn.ntl.com is.

All the best
Kai

Can anyone here help me understand what is happening?

[eddie00001]

dtn (Digital TeleNetwork) = ntl
the @dtn.ntl.com were the address's given out to customers prior to the @ntlworld.com being used. All should by now have been migrated over to @ntlworld.com

[kai]

Thank you for the information, Eddie.

I have asked the ntl helpline about this. They said that the @dtn.ntl.com addresses are no longer in use by them, and that some third party must have configured their own mail server to use them. When I asked how could mail addressed to myname@dtn.ntl.com be successfully delivered to me when that was not a valid address for me, I was told that the server must be employing 'carbon copying' whereby anything addressed to the @dtn.ntl.com address was redirected to the corresponding @ntlworld.com address with the headings forged so as to hide the fact. Their advice was simply to treat all such mail as spam.

I cannot believe that some spammer has gone to these lengths just to target me. Is nobody else getting these 'dtn' bounces?

A whois search on dtn.ntl.com drew a blank. Call me paranoid, but I cannot help feeling that there is more to this than just another spammer's ploy.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by kai

A whois search on dtn.ntl.com drew a blank. Call me paranoid, but I cannot help feeling that there is more to this than just another spammer's ploy.

Yep - you're paranoid - it's a common spammers trick to put completely false addresses on their e-mails "to" address field - and then BCC them to the real addresses.

[threadbare]

Originally Posted by kai

Thank you for the information, Eddie.

I have asked the ntl helpline about this. They said that the @dtn.ntl.com addresses are no longer in use by them, and that some third party must have configured their own mail server to use them. When I asked how could mail addressed to myname@dtn.ntl.com be successfully delivered to me when that was not a valid address for me, I was told that the server must be employing 'carbon copying' whereby anything addressed to the @dtn.ntl.com address was redirected to the corresponding @ntlworld.com address with the headings forged so as to hide the fact. Their advice was simply to treat all such mail as spam.

I cannot believe that some spammer has gone to these lengths just to target me. Is nobody else getting these 'dtn' bounces?

A whois search on dtn.ntl.com drew a blank. Call me paranoid, but I cannot help feeling that there is more to this than just another spammer's ploy.

everyone who has a ntlworld address also has a dtn address - its an alias for the same thing.