Ok, I seem to have a problem -- I suddenly just recieved spam FROM MYSELF. Help?!?

Question

It sent me a spam email, from my own email address!!!


My mom had this same problem as well -- Does anyone know what the heck is going on here?

We dont' have spyware or anything, I don't think....

Answer 1

OK first of all .... Don't Panic!


The first thing to do is to ensure your email client is viewing "Full Headers" which is a bunch of technical stuff above the body of the email... if you are using a web based email like yahoo... click on OPTIONS in the upper right-hand of the window... go into General Preferences... and halfway down the screen where it says MESSAGES... make sure the option for Full Headers is clicked.

Now go back to the email and look at the information above the "message" or body of the email...

Most likely, someone has just made it look like the email is coming from you. Just like when you send an email there is a place where you type in your name and can make it look like whatever you want... and you can change the "reply-to" field to be whatever you want... most likely that is what's happening.

If you look at the header information you will see that the x-originating-ip is coming from someplace other than you.

Here is a website that will teach you how to read header information:
http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html

Now, IF and just IF on the other hand you find that the email really is coming from you (which I doubt) then you may be infected with some sort of worm... but as long as you have anti-virus/firewall installed and updated regularly by a reliable vendor like McAfee... you should be fine. Double-check that your antivirus is installed, is enabled, is updating, etc...

good luck :)

Answer 2

This is an easy one, there are only three possibilities, I will list then with the least likely one first.........

The spammer simply randomly came up with the spoofed email address that matches yours. (odds of this happening are astronomical but is possible)

You do have a some sort of virus that you put onto your computer, I.E. you downloaded a tool bar or other such program and installed it without knowing it was loaded with the virus (virus programs only detect what tries to sneak in to your computer and not what you put there yourself)
( to check if this is the case check your address books to see if your email is in the books as well because this type of virus will use your whole address book including your email that is in it.)

You use a instant messenger program that uses your email address somewhere in it and you got a message that instructed you to click a link to somewhere and bam you got the virus, (again anti virus programs view this as user installed)(Remember never ever click on a link in your messenger unless you know the person and they have told you that they are going to send it then it is a good idea to check with them to make sure they really did send it)

You will need to use as many on line virus scanners that you know are trustworthy to find and remove it. then warn your email address friends that you had it and not to accept it unless you let them know you are sending an email (easily done by using a code word in the subject line that will indicate it is a real email)

Answer 3

Actually, I received the same thing, with my own e-mail address. The only thing I can think of is that the email heading was spoofed (literally meaning that if someone with a server (not yahoos) added a email account on the server to make it seem like it came from either your or I). Upon closer examination, only the header is what makes it seem like yours. The actual email however, originated from China, Hong Kong to be exact.

Answer 4

more than likely the spammers are simply forging th eheaders on the email with the recipients email address, so even if it bounces it doesn't go back to them.

If you want to be sure about no spyware

I'd reccomend these 2, run each in turn
ADAWARE fro www.lavasoftusa.com (Free personal version)
also SPYBOT S&D from www.spybot.org (Again free for home use)


Also worth having in toolbox is CCLEANER from www.ccleaner.com again a free download, and a good general windows tidyup utility.

Answer 5

Nothing to worry about. Spammers often do that - send spam to someone and change the from address to be the same as the to address. Easy to do.