This is no lie. I have gotten more than 5,000 bounced emails from various postmasters sent to my other email address I have saying it's a mailer-daemon postmaster; this email does not exist, we tried but couldn't send your email; in a considerable amount of them have HGH Life or Hoodia from Africa in the bottom of the body of the email message. I asked the manager of my email account and I was told that it can't be stopped, it's not spam, or phishing, but someone used my name and email address in the "from" and "subject" field. I don't understand how it's done. I don't know how this is possible, can someone explain? Did someone steal my personal computer number for tracking. I'm going to have to cancel this email account and open another one. A few of the bounced back postmaster mailer-daemon emails I got were from government officials & said don't send emails here but I never sent anyone these emails? And Why? Can anyone explain? Can this be fixed? Can this happen again.????
2007-06-26 10:57:42 · 7 answers · asked by stopanswers 6 in Computers & Internet ➔ Internet ➔ Other - Internet
Chances are that your computer became infected and was used as a spam bot. You should immediately run all security scans. Here are some steps below. Also I would transfer any email or contacts that you want kept to another account in case it gets shutdown.
Firstly update and run your anti-virus product. You can also run a free online scan as well as some malware can actually corrupt or disable your resident security products. Here are a few online scans you can run:
Trend - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Panda - http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/ActiveScan.htm
Norton - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym
Second download, update and run scans using the following products:
SuperAntispyware
http://superantispyware.com/
Spybot S&D (free version requires manual updating)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
AVG AntiSpyware
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5
Adaware from Lavasoft (free version requires automatic updating)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
(These programs can be run in Safe Mode after downloading and updating)
Third, after cleaning your system, disable System Restore, reboot and re-enable System Restore when you log back on. This will clear the malware that may still be lurking in System Restore, which could be reinstalled should you need to rollback at some point. Additionally, a reboot may be required to complete the malware removal process.
Lastly, you may also want to install the following tool. It is free and requires you to check for and enable updates manually once a week or so. It uses no system resources.
SpywareBlaster (inoculates, not a spyware removal tool)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
================================
If you cannot get it removed after the above, you may want to join a tech group that specializes in providing manual instructions on malware eradication.
Free technical help forums
AumHa Forums
http://aumha.net/index.php
Bleeping Computers
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/
Spybot S&D Forums
http://forums.spybot.info/
Lavasoft Forums
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/
Spyware Info Forums
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=79038
GeekstoGo
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html
2007-06-26 11:05:00 · answer #1 · answered by MLM 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You either have a virus on your computer, or spyware.
Either way, it's hacking into your email account and sending out junk spam email.
Most of these types of things are harmless, just irritating. Some, however, steal your passwords, which could be dangerous if you pay bills online or do banking online.
You should get Norton Anti-virus and run it immediately. You should also run some spyware removal programs.
Yahoo toolbar gives you a good one for free called Norton Spyware scan. Just go to Yahoo.com and it should appear on the upper toolbar. It's icon is a yellow circle with a crossed pattern inside the circle.
Other good free spyware removal programs are Ad-Aware SE Personal, which can be downloaded for free from Lavasoft.com
The other thing you could do (at least on a PC) is use system restore to set your computer software back to a date before this started happening. If you aren't familiar with that, open the start menu and go to all programs. Then go to accessories, then system tools. Select System restore and it will walk you though it. It does not damage or remove any files you have created, it just affects the system files. Just select a date on the calendar a few days before the first instance of anything odd happening.
Those should do the trick.
2007-06-26 11:05:56 · answer #2 · answered by whiskeyman510 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First of all, anyone can send emails from any email address (technically). When I say send, I mean the from address can be from any email, but they are not using the actual mail server to send those emails. To test this, use Outlook or similar email client. Create a new account, and in the from field, enter any email address. You can actually do the same thing using the mail() function in PHP.
As far as your email, do you have any web forms or any website that is sending emails to that address?? If so, that website might have been attacked via mail injection. I would need to see the actual email that was sent with the full headers to be able to help you out more.
In other words, the easiest way to get rid of it is to delete the account and re-create another one.
2007-06-26 11:10:34 · answer #3 · answered by bonkers 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A lot of spammers, use a program that allows you to just use any email you want so if your email is popular then odds are you will be targetted. Best advice, is to get another email account with an unusual name and try not to use that email on the Internet since most spammers harvest emails from the Internet to spoof them.
2007-06-26 11:03:35 · answer #4 · answered by omagedon 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your have spyware, or a virus your computer has been in effect hi-jacked as a zombie. It's not in the email it is in your computer
Download for free SUPERANTIspyware at superantispyware.com to get rid of spyware. Use CCLeaner at ccleaner.com to clean up files and fix the registry. Last if you are not running virus protection go to Grissoft.com and get AVG for free. In the meanwhile if you need a scan of your computer you can go to trendmicros.com and get a quick scan for free
2007-06-26 11:12:31 · answer #5 · answered by Pengy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
your pc is being used as a zombie for sending out spam, you need to run anti virus and anti spyware scans as soon as possible and cancel the e mail account they are being sent from, dont open a new account until you are sure your pc is clean of anything like viruses or spyware. this is quite common problem
2007-06-26 13:18:55 · answer #6 · answered by D McC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If it's a Yahoo! or AOL e-mail address, I believe all they need is your password, then they can send e-mails with it. If it's not those, something like Outlook Express, I have no idea how someone could do that.
2007-06-26 11:01:51 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋