somebody stole my email address?

Question

I did not send the message referred to in the following message:


User mailbox exceeds allowed message count:
[e-mail]


Original message follows.

Received: from mail.ckhweb.com [200.83.226.81] by
mail.ckhweb.com
(SMTPD-8.21) id A2680504; Sat, 19 Aug 2006 14:11:36 -0500
Received: from mx1.mail.yahoo.com
by pc-81-226-83-200.cm.vtr.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id
1LMhiYsuQyND6
for ; Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:07:53 -0300
Received: from [49.9.184.191]
by mx1.mail.yahoo.com with ESMTP (Exim 4.05) id NGiFlqsHBZ7ZW
for ; Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:05:20 -0300
From: "[e-mail]"
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:01:23 -0300
Message-ID: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Content-type: text/html;
Charset=Windows-1251
Subject: POTENTIAL SPAM (pf) - Enlarge you penis with no
physical efforts, enlarge it with Advanced Gain Pro Penis
Enlargement Pills.
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-IMAIL-SPAM-PHRASE: (626801c00000b435, penis enlargement)

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Answer 1

Nah, one of two things has happened. Some spammer may be using your e-mail address as the "From:" address. Spoofing that is childs play; e-mail has zero security.

Or a spammer is using fake "bounce" messages as a wrapper for spam e-mails to try to avoid spam filters. My money is on this one based on the headers in that e-mail.

The mail server in that message (mail.ckhweb.com) does not resolve to the IP address listed (200.83.226.81). The mail server name can be spoofed but the IP address is nearly impossible to spoof. That IP address is in Chile but the mail server is in Wisconsin. This means that the whole thing was spoofed; it's just SPAM. Delete it and forget about it.

If you can still get into your e-mail account there's nothing to worry about -- and nothing that you can do to fight it. For safety's sake change your password but that's about it.

Answer 2

Most likely someone sent an email with fake header information. I regularly receive emails from myself to myself. I just delete them. Unless you know of someone who would target you/your computer, you should do the same. People who take over systems or accounts tend to do so quietly so they can abuse those accounts or systems longer.

Answer 3

You let down your guard.. your pc is being used as a spam server. Call your ISP and explain this story.

Answer 4

Oh, you're not alone. My email address was hacked, too and now, for 3 weeks and 2 days, I cannot open my email.