[at-l] Weird Email (WARNING - off topic question)

[bullard@northnet.org (James Bullard)]

This is strange. Lately I've been getting weird email. First there was the 
guy in Nigeria (allegedly, it was a Lycos email account) who wanted me to 
use my business to launder some ill gotten gains. My son (computer 
programmer type) dismissed that as a scam attempt to get my bank account 
number. Then there was the guy from India who said he was starting a 
pharmaceutical company and wanted a catalog of the equipment my company had 
to offer. He didn't ask for a bank account number but did include a long 
list of the types of equipment he wished to purchase. And today I got an 
email from Son Ho Jin to "Lu" apologizing for taking so long to reply.

I do have a business (of sorts, strictly part-time at this point) as an 
artist/craftsman but I don't sell industrial equipment, there's no one 
named "Lu" here and I wasn't expecting a reply from Son Ho Jin, whoever 
that is.

My question for any email experts on the list (we do seem to have a fair 
number of techies): Is it possible for email to be misdirected by routers 
and end up in the wrong virtual mailbox just like what sometimes happens 
with the USPS? Note: This has happened before, getting email from someone I 
don't know who isn't selling anything and has no reason to have my email 
address (as far as I can determine) but it's gotten frequent in the last 
couple of weeks.

Saunterer