By Graham K. Rogers

I keep a fairly close watch on the emails that manage to pass through the filters and it is clear that while some is fairly benign (if annoying) advertising material, there are still enough dangerous mail slipping through.

Having signed up for a number of Apple mail lists, the arrival of an email with the Apple logo is not unusual, except they usually have a theme (a new product line) or may be connected to other things that have recently arrived.

One such arrival this week concerned part of a developer program: giving feedback. I have done this before, but I have not yet decided if I will take part this time. I was slightly surprised to see an email on Saturday that impatiently informed me I had one unanswered message that would be deleted in two days. This is so unlike Apple and their approach to customers (and developers) that the antenna bristled.

A closer look showed a Reply to address of xlsrqcdtbjg@static.customer-201-116-199-34.uninet-ide.com.mx and all alarms were blaring.

The email purports to come from Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Cork, Ireland and not Cupertino, but the final confirmation was running the cursor over the "Verify Now" and the "frequently asked questions" links. Both showed an IP number of 209.240.134.10, identified as www.eastbaycrabhouse.com which brings up a health warning when entered into a browser.

Even mails that appear to be from Apple may be a risk.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.