we keep receiving emails in our companies inbox saying that a message was not able to be delivered. When we open up the message it appears as though the emails originate from our websites email but they are not being sent by us. I have been told this is called email harvesting? For example when we send out an email it would be from bobsmith@anycompany.com and when we get the failure notices they are from weird origins like wxlgpks7@anycompany.com and the email bodies contain things like stock information and motgage rates, things that have nothing to do with our company and definately did not come from us. Any idea on how to prevent more people from doing this in the future or how to stop the people that are already doing it? thanks.
2006-10-24 09:30:07 · 4 answers · asked by ME 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
Welcome to the world of spam. Spammers send out thousands of emails at a time either randomly addressed, or with addresses taken from email address lists harvested and sold on the internet. Many emails come from Zomby computers - which are computers taken over (unknown to the owners) by hackers, etc, and used to spread even more spam. Setting email filters, or marking emails as spam to block in the future may help. Or you could try using Mailwasher: http://www.mailwasher.net/
I would advise never to open any strange or unexpected emails, for they might contain viruses, trojans, and other nasties. If in doubt delete the email unopened, being particularly wary of opening attachments or links to software with an EXE extension.
2006-10-24 09:47:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of two things is happening here. Either a spammer is using your e-mail address as a spoofed 'From:' address OR your mail server is an open relay on the internet.
If your 'From:' address is being spoofed, there's nothing you can do about it.
To see if your mail server is an open relay, go to http://www.abuse.org and test your mail server. If it IS an open relay, get it fixed immediately as you're spewing spam all over the internet!
2006-10-24 09:42:13 · answer #2 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Check with your ISP to take some action on this. In this case from your side a little u can do. If you are using your own email server, clear all junks. Update it with the latestt version. Take care of your lates anti virus software too. In your email server block all incoming (which is unexpected) mail's domain.
Remember if you are trying to send email which does not exists, your email server will notify you.
And if you are also in email fishing business!!!!!!!!!!
You are eaten by big fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha
anyway enjoy.......................................
2006-10-24 09:42:11 · answer #3 · answered by Hadi M 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can't stop them. People can fake any information they want in outgoing email, and you can't stop them. I'm sorry.
You can protect yourselves if you have all your employees digitally sign their outgoing email. At least you can tell people, If it's not digitally signed by us, it didn't come from us. Supposedly, you can't fake a digital signature.
For more about digital signatures, go to: http://www.thawte.com
Also, write your congressman. Ask them to make it illegal to use false information in email headers.
2006-10-24 09:43:24 · answer #4 · answered by jplrvflyer 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋