Virtual Internet do not allow spam mail to be sent through their mail servers because we have a closed relay system. If you receive spam mail addressed 'to' undisclosedrecipients@mxhost-1.vi.net, a spammer has created a mailing list of e-mail addresses on our mail server. The mailing list is likely to be called undisclosedrecipients, but this is not a complete e-mail address. Therefore our mail server autocompletes the mailing list as undisclosedrecipients@mxhost-1.vi.net. This does not mean that the spam has been sent from mxhost-1.vi.net - it will have been sent from an external location to a list of e-mail addresses on mxhost-1.vi.net. It is possible to 'forge' the 'to' field, to cover up the mail addresses to which the spam mail is sent.

There have also been cases where spam has been sent 'from' undisclosedrecipients@mxhost-1.vi.net. Once again, this does not mean the mail has come from Virtual Internet's servers. Using any e-mail client, such as Outlook Express, it is possible to specify a 'from' field. You can specify any e-mail address - the mail does not have to originate from this location. If you receive an e-mail from undisclosedrecipients@mxhost-1.vi.net, the spammers are likley to have set the 'from' field as undisclosedrecipients. When the spam mail hits our mail servers, the 'from' address must be a valid e-mail address, so our mail system autocompletes the address as undisclosedrecipients@mxhost-1.vi.net. Unfortunately, due to the fact it is possible to specify any 'from' field, it is difficult to tell where the e-mail originated from, as it usually comes from a spoofed address. Therefore it is not possible to block spam mail to our network.