Email problems, is it spam, or am I hacked?

Question

I check my email today and find 6-7 delivery failure notifications. I did not send them. I look at them, and they are all spam for some kind of viagra, with somebody elses name.

(This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Delivery to the following recipients failed.
[e-mail]
From: Tommie <~~~~~~@hotmail.com>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: not bad, ha? Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:00:42 -0700
Sent: Tuesday, August 8, 2006 2:01 PM)

Um, my name is not Tommie. What the hell is this exactly? Is it spam who cloned my email? Or is there something in my computer that's done this, a virus maybe? If you KNOW what is going on or can at least help me figure it out, please let me know.

For those of you who are on the slighter side of stupid. If you read this, it states that I got the delivery failure notices and that it was MY email address that was used to SEND these spam emails. Please read thoroughly before answering.

Answer 1

Either your computer or another computer that has your e mail address on it, is badly infected with a virus to allow another person to send out thousands of spam e mails a day.

"In 2003, spam investigators saw a radical change in the way spammers sent spam. Rather than searching the global network for exploitable services such as open relays and proxies, spammers began creating "services" of their own. By commissioning computer viruses designed to deploy proxies and other spam-sending tools, spammers could harness hundreds of thousands of end-user computers."

"Most of the major Windows e-mail viruses of 2003, including the Sobig and Mimail virus families, functioned as spammer viruses: viruses designed expressly to make infected computers available as spamming tools"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spam_%28e-m...

All you can do is be sure that your computer is free of virus, worms and trojans. Here is a good clean-up procedure if your currently are lacking one.

1. Scan for virus and remove (free online scan) with BitDefender

http://www.bitdefender.com/site/home/...

2. Scan for trojans and remove (free online scan) with Ewido

http://www.ewido.net/en/

3. Scan for ad/spyware and remove (free download) with Spybot Search & Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybo...

If your computer is clean, then all you can do is wait until the owner of the infected computer that is sending spam with your address relalizes what is going on and cleans-up his computer.

For further infomation you can Google the word "botnet"

Good luck

Answer 2

(This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Delivery to the following recipients failed.
[e-mail]
From: Tommie <~~~~~~@hotmail.com>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: not bad, ha? Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:00:42 -0700
Sent: Tuesday, August 8, 2006 2:01 PM)

-- it is from Tommie, are you [e-mail], if so it's to you, if you are not then it is good ole spam, courteousy of hotmail....

Answer 3

Hi there.
I had that happen to me about a yr ago to.
I just did'nt know what was going on either and I did'nt know how to stop it either.
So I called up my internet services and told them what was going on at that time,they said I should just change my e-mail address and that would stop it all together.
So I did that and no more,was very happy about that.
I was getting them by the hundred's and could'nt delete them out fast enough.
But now I have'nt got any for over a yr,thank god to that I say.
Try it and it should work for you,ok.
If it should happen again,you may have to take your computer down to get a make over,sorry but that's the truth.
For you I hope not.
Good luck.
Take care.
Sharon.

Answer 4

I had this happen once and I asked my Internet provider people about it and they said it was likely that someone who has my e-mail address in their address book has a virus which was pulling random addresses from their book to use to send spam stuff. Could be what happened to you too.

Answer 5

someone probably hacked ur computer and is sending spam as you. if i were you i'd take my computer to a computer repair shop and have it checked out.

Answer 6

its hopefully spam..... some use programs which send mail using any id....