And he wants to make sure there's no possible confusion about the fact that what he's entering into the form as a test isn't real information. So he simply types 'test' into each field and clicks 'Submit.'

'The form was created to grab the user's ID number and automatically mail the user a copy, in addition to the appropriate personnel,' says fish. 'Since I had entered 'test' in the user field, an e-mail was sent to 'test@ourcompany.com.'

'Little did I know that someone had created a massive e-mail group -- called 'test@ourcompany.com.' '

Within minutes, hundreds of bewildered users are replying to the e-mail, asking why they've been sent a confidential form with some very strange entries in it.

And because they're replying to 'test,' copies of each reply are sent to everyone on the list, and the e-mail avalanche keeps building.