Email Hi-jack?

Question

OK..I got an undeliverable notice from a mailer daemon in the in-box. Well I opened the notice and according to it, I had emailed a person (unknown to me)some weird adverstisment. The header had my acutal email address but it had another persons name preceeding it. OK guys so obviously my email has been hi-jaked .....Im looking for ideas as to what i can do....

Answer 1

you should change your password immediately and change it often. Check your computer for presence of any keyloggers.

http://yanswers.blogspot.com/2006/09/create-secure-passwords.html

http://yanswers.blogspot.com/2006/10/essential-free-internet-security.html

Answer 2

Ok, apart from other possibilities mentioned previously, here is what I can tell you...

Conclusion: You don't need to worry about it too much.

Reason: The undeliverable notice from the mailer daemon (i.e. Norton AntiSpam) was created by the following:
1. Spammer sent a fake email using your email address as the return email address (also as the sender). Spammer didn't know your name, that is why it had another persons name.
2. The AntiSpam/Email Deamon received the fake email, treated it as spam, bouncing it back to the sender, you, as far as the AntiSpam was concerned.
3. You received this strange email.

Why I know it?: Because I did a case with similar situation, and spent 2 days tracing the spammer. And of course, it wasn't too hard to recreate the bouncing email and trace back what really happened.

What can you do about this situation?: Honestly, nothing much other than have a good sleep at night. You can email the network administrator of the mailer daemon about that situation and request them to pull you off the bouncing list.

At least, you don't need to worry about spyware or virus too much, at least for this case. (Note: it is always a good practice to use antivirus/antispyware/firewall)

Answer 3

Change your password. Also run a spyware or adware removal program, along with a complete full virus check (plan on not using your computer for awhile, as sometimes this can take hours.) If this doesn't clear up the issue, then register a new email address since it's free on most sites.

Answer 4

There is a new Email Hijacker program that you might have on your computer. This program is very difficult to remove because it changes itself while on your computer. This means that any AV program cannot remove it completely.

Run your AV program and see if it finds anything. If you don't have one on your computer, or, it doesn't find an infection then go here and run the free on-line scan and removal. If nothing is found by this then you might have a hacker that has access to your computer via Remote Access.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

You might need to reformat your computer to get rid of whatever you have.

Answer 5

I doubt you've been hacked. that is ordinary to spoof digital mail headers to make apparently as if somebody else despatched it. Its a complication-loose spammer trick that means that any undelivered emails are bounced decrease back to you. The spammer will likely give up utilizing your manage in an afternoon or 2.