> >The only thing I can think of that will cause someone to get mail from a
> >list they are not subscribed to is that they are still subscribed to the
> >list under another user id or someone else is forwarding the mail to
> >them.
>
> I sometimes get mail sent to [log in to unmask] which is clearly
> addressed to someone else, a Ms. Silverstein, but who she is or how my
> address got on the machine I don't know.  There is no reply to mail
> addressed to [log in to unmask], and telnetting to port 25 doesn't
> seem to provide any useful information.  It appears that there must be
> some program there that collects email addresses and installs them as
> aliases, but I can't imagine why.
 
LOC.GOV is the US Library of Congress.  While I have nothing to do with
its operation, I have encountered MAIL.LOC.GOV before.  I believe that
it is a Softswitch Central gateway.  Softswitch Central is a mail
gateway that connects many different kinds of email systems.  It uses
the IBM SNADS 8x8 addressing scheme -- an 8 character DEN (Distribution
Entity Name) or userid and an 8 character DGN (Distribution Group Name)
or node name.  Since many addresses won't fit into 8x8, Softswitch has
an autoregistration function that will automatically assign a DEN and
DGN for the From address in incoming messages, so that the recipient
can reply.  So if you ever sent mail to anyone at MAIL.LOC.GOV, or even
to a list that somone from MAIL.LOC.GOV was subscribed to, you could be
in their Softswitch directory.  Then all it would take is someone
trying to send to Ms. Silverstein selecting your directory entry by
mistake.
 
Roger Fajman                                   Telephone:  +1 301 402 4265
National Institutes of Health                  BITNET:     RAF@NIHCU
Bethesda, Maryland, USA                        Internet:   [log in to unmask]
Postmaster for CU.NIH.GOV/NIHCU, LIST.NIH.GOV/NIHLIST, WEB.NIH.GOV, NIH3PLUS