why I got a returned email that I never sent? how do I get rid of this problem? thanks!?

Question

I got numerous email that been returned to me from various mail servers around the world saying that the email that I sent was not success; the problem is I never sent those email...I am wondering what is happening and how to resolve this? thank you

Answer 1

I had that happen to me -- I got "returns" from companies in foreign languages. I was also getting e-mails that were not addressed to me. I wrote to my Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is how they responded (below). I copy it to you because it is informative as to how "Spammers" work. As this reply states, an email is send to one address and then it auto-distributes many from it -- your "one address" could have been used -- and now you are getting returns ("undelivered") from email recipients that do not (actually) exist. The spammer could have randomly created an address that matched yours, or saw yours on the Net, I assume. [My ISP has been deleted below for (my) privacy reasons.]

COPY:

Thank you for writing to ["ISP"].

Regarding your concern, you have contacted us stating that you are receiving email not addressed to you. The person sending you this, is using a spam distribution technique in which they are able to send to one address but that one address auto distributes the email to all addresses that have common symbols and numbers in them. For example, the distributor of the unsolicited email could put marksman@["ISP"].com in the TO header line and the email would then go out to a series of randomly generated email addresses that have either 'mark' or 'man' in them. Of the thousands of randomly generated addresses that fit these criteria only a few may be real ["ISP"]addresses and one of them may be yours.

To stop this type of behavior:

We are unable to and always have been unable to police the source of emails that are not from our domain. Individual emails such as the one that you forwarded to us, are best dealt with by the domain name they were sent from. Although we are able to forward these emails to that domain, the domain is more likely to seriously consider the report of unsolicited email from the primary receiver. This is the best way to stop spammers instead of just spending more time and money to filter these messages out. In most cases the senders can be turned off for the unsolicited emails that they send.

Also, in many cases these unsolicited emails may appear to be a violation of Federal law, please take a look at the Federal Trade Commission's website to get information about where to forward these offending emails:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/02/eileenspam1.htm

Please be sure to include the full headers of the original unsolicited email in your complaint, as this is the only way the FTC can track down the source of the message.

Thanks again for writing.

All the best,

***END COPY***

I thank my ISP for the information. I think it is well-explained.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I had the same problem. Someone else, a stranger, is using your email address as a front for whatever they're doing. They probably don't have access to your email account, but when they put in a "reply to" in their spam, they are putting your email address in, instead of their own, in the hopes that you will get into any trouble they've stirred up, instead of you.

You can go to the trouble to pull out the full headers for each email, track them down, and pass the info on, but I didn't bother. Just delete your email address, and make a new one.

A word of caution; if you recieve regular newsletters or other such things (I get surveys), be sure to change your email address for them. And if you can't remember who all you should tell, remember to import your address book to your new address before you delete your old one. In my case, I don't keep a list of where I'm getting regular mailings from. I had to make the new address, change each mailing as it came in, and delete the old address a few weeks later.

Answer 3

Someone is using your email address as a return address when sending spam. When it goes to the wrong address it bounces back to you. Short of changing your email address there is nothing you can do.

Answer 4

Someone is spoofing your email address. They are pretending to be you while sending the message. You need to contact your email provider (like Yahoo!) and tell them someone is spoofing your email. You could also have a virus using your computer to send emails to other people, so run a virus scan also.

Answer 5

The probability is somebody knows your mail address and password and is using it. Simply change your mail address and password and inform all your trusted contact(s) about your new mail address. Then install anti-spy software in your computer to further secure your PC against this malicious users. You can get this software for free from CNET DOWNLOAD.COM

Answer 6

sounds like you may have a bit of spyware on your computer, and it's trying to send out information it may have gathered. do a virus check and a spyware/malware scan. you should also get a free copy of zone alarm. it's a free software firewall and will stop these types of programs from sending unwanted e-mail. when the program tries to access the internet you will be alerted as to what program it is and you will be able to delete it.

Answer 7

Delete it without reading.

It is spam. or your computer is a zombie. Check to see if you have spyware in your computer, because you could be sending out the spam.

Answer 8

You computer may be a Zombie:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/whatisavirus/a/zombiepc.htm

Answer 9

what i do is don't answer back just delete them you don't have to answer the mail.