no To: header in emails

[Dave Lovelace]

Tom Anderson wrote, in part:
> 
> It's dangerous to assume that no To: header means it is garbage.  You
> may be CC'd along with a group of others by one of your friends (I get
> jokes this way), with nobody specified in the To: field.  Also, valid
> mailing lists sometimes do this.  In any event, I think you'll lose good
> email this way.
> 
Right, I do that myself when broadcasting stuff to a bunch of friends.
Actually I Bcc it to them, with no To: header.  I do it to avoid spreading
individuals' addresses around.

Remember that the To: is a header added by the sender's mailer, which
may or may not correspond to what the smtp server is told in being informed
about where to deliver the message.  Spammers use this fact all the time
to spoof, but there are legitimate reasons why it is that way.  Cc is
merely the most obvious.

-- 
- Dave Lovelace
  dave at firstcomp.biz
  davel at cyberspace.org