IRS sending warning notes, violating ECPA?

[Paul Bradley]

> > The sending of this email to people Jim has communicated with, if it was 
> > a real mail (I haven`t checked before but other people have and have said 
> > the headers indicate it passed through several .gov hosts), constitutes 
> > cowardly harrasment.
> 
> Oh, right.  If there is anyplace in cyberspace where experts in 
> cowardly harassment by email exist, it is on this list.  Get real.

I never claimed to be above a little cowardly harrasment myself, just 
pointed out that this is the general level at which this mail appeared to 
be. Nor indeed did I say there was anything wrong with cowardly 
harrasment, in it`s place.

> More likely someone at IRS thought they would stir things up a bit, 
> and is having a bit of fun watching all this.  Maybe they even 
> thought they were doing people a favor.

Possibly, the first explanation strikes me as most likely. 

        Datacomms Technologies data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul at fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul at crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul at cryptography.uk.eu.org    
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     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"