Wednesday, March 7, 2012

How is It that I am receiving spam from myself?

I have received several spam messages from my own email account. How is this happening? Does this mean that I've been hacked? If so, how did it happen? What do I do to make sure it never happens again? Please help if you can. Thanks in advance.How is It that I am receiving spam from myself?
It's called "spoofing", Andy.

Spoofing is the "forgery" of an address, to hide the identity of the sender, and is usually done by an Automatic Spamming system, that "blindly and randomly, runs through addresses in sequence".



It's not actually coming from or thru your account, (see in your sent folder), so changing your password is NO solution.



One type that's called "Self Spamming"--(go figure)--appears to be coming "from" and going "to" the same address.



Anti-spam experts say----There's nothing you can do, except delete them. They are a nuisance, but harmless and don't last long.

Don't spam them--you'd only be spamming your own address.How is It that I am receiving spam from myself?
There are several possibilities.

One is that the spammer's spam program forges the recipient's address as being the sender.

One is that your email address has been selected to be forged as the sender of many emails. When this happens, it is common for delivery failure notices to get bounced to you. It is often occurs with self-mailing viruses that harvest address books along the way and rotate some of those addresses to be the forged sender address.

There is not much you can do about the above.



It could be that a spammer is sending spam from your account. The spambots would probably not send the spam to you unless you have your address in your address book. If it is happening, then other people in your address book will be getting spam. Most of the time these spammers obtain the password from phishing spam. Most of the time changing your password ends the problem.

It is a good idea to scan your computer for viruses and spyware, just in case those are being used to obtain your passwords.How is It that I am receiving spam from myself?
That is a trick spammers use in order to get you to open their E-mail. They also place incorrect dates on E-mails. But, make sure your computer is not infected first, as this might also be a reason for the mails.

Immediately have your computer checked for a 'bug' or 'bugs.'

Once it is clean of pests, install a firewall and an anti-virus program if you do not have one yet.

I strongly recommend a program for malware and adware also.

After you finish this, then go in and change your password, using a good strong one.

You can not completely stop all spam, but you can help to put a big dent in it.

First, try not to open any of them, that only makes them send more and more to you.

Check mark them and click on 'Spam,' this should stop those addresses from being delivered to your inbox.

Use your spam guard and block address.

Look for the 'Options' link at upper right corner of mail screen and click on it

Options /mail options

Click on 'spam' in the list on the left.

Make sure spam guard is on, by checking in the little box.

Then in 'Blocked Email Addresses,' enter the E-mail address you wish blocked, in the box after 'Add a blocked address' and click on the 'add' button, then click on save changes at top left of screen.

You will never get mail from that address again.

This should help you to control your spam.

Other tips:

Never open E-mail unless you are absolutely sure who it is from.

Never give out your personal information to anyone.

If you are on a site and you absolutely have to sign up for something, check the entire page to make sure you uncheck any lines wanting to send you any other info, notices, catalogs, ads, and the like.

Added detail:

Yes, spammers change one item in their addresses a lot, so you might try blocking the entire domain, by putting in

*@ thedomainyouwanttoblock.com

for instance: *@seeyou.com

Hope this helps.
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