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Marketing email sent "from myself"

by gwpmike
17 replies
Hey, I came across something interesting today. I received an email from somebody promoting an IM product. The subject line was "Empower Network has recommended this program to you" although I'm pretty sure the email wasn't actually sent from Empower Network, nor am I a member of EN. Here's the interesting part... the email was from MY email but I never sent this email to myself. It's even in my SENT inbox. This is a clever technique, because of course the email appears in my primary inbox since it was sent "from myself". How would somebody do this? Could they have set MY email as the "from" email in their autoresponder? Or did they hack into my Gmail account and sent the email to myself? What do you think?
#email #from myself #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author LarryHaywood
    Well, since it was in your outbox that makes it seem like they may have accessed your account.
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    • Profile picture of the author gwpmike
      Originally Posted by LarryHaywood View Post

      Well, since it was in your outbox that makes it seem like they may have accessed your account.
      The only thing is, I have a "mobile confirmation" so that if somebody tried to login to my account, they would have had to receive the text message on my phone and type the code into Gmail. They would have had to have access to either my phone or my laptop.. which nobody did.
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      • Profile picture of the author bt
        Originally Posted by gwpmike View Post

        The only thing is, I have a "mobile confirmation" so that if somebody tried to login to my account, they would have had to receive the text message on my phone and type the code into Gmail. They would have had to have access to either my phone or my laptop.. which nobody did.

        I get those emails to all the time, i just ignore them, i doubt your account was hacked, these slime balls have just figured out a way to manipulate the system.
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    Your email was hacked mate but this is not something very unsual, it does happen.
    My email was hacked and any one who has ever sent me an email in the past, all of them were sent spammy emails...
    I dont know how they were able to sent email to every one in the inbox but they did it....
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  • Profile picture of the author Worrier9001
    Does the email have the warning that says this email may not have been sent by...

    See here: https://support.google.com/mail/trou...t_warning&rd=1
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    I would change password and other security details at first place, they couldn't be Empower Network, someone is using their name so might be a scammer. Stay away from those emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vednor
    Originally Posted by gwpmike View Post

    Hey, I came across something interesting today. I received an email from somebody promoting an IM product. The subject line was "Empower Network has recommended this program to you" although I'm pretty sure the email wasn't actually sent from Empower Network, nor am I a member of EN. Here's the interesting part... the email was from MY email but I never sent this email to myself. It's even in my SENT inbox. This is a clever technique, because of course the email appears in my primary inbox since it was sent "from myself". How would somebody do this? Could they have set MY email as the "from" email in their autoresponder? Or did they hack into my Gmail account and sent the email to myself? What do you think?
    Did you log into any 3rd party IM services using your email ID and pass?
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Hi,

    Don't hang around get that password changed ASAP.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    Ignore the email 'From' line look at the email header code near the bottom to find the sender source, likely it will not be you.

    Some of these spammers are getting clever (or they think they are)
    Good idea to change you password anyway right away as a precaution.
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  • Profile picture of the author joaquin112
    They obviously didnt send it from your account. It was just someone manipulating the from address. This is actually very common.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Hit reply, and see who what the email is in the outbox?



    (Sometimes emails can be spoofed, but real sender will be revealed upon a reply).
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  • Profile picture of the author yakim1
    I think this process is called ghosting. I had this happen to me and had to eventually delete my email address from my server. I was not actually receiving the emails to my email address but my server was sending notices that email bounces were coming into my server.

    Someone had probably purchased a list and uploaded it to some kind of autoresponder software and used my email address as the sent email address. This meant that all the bounces where sent back to my server.

    I was getting 300 to 400 bounces a day at the same time of the day. I contacted my host and they were no help at all for this problem. I did not want my server to be blacklisted so I deleted that email address from my server so it would not accept any more bounces.

    I don't know how that person got the email address that was used because I never sent out any email using that email address as the from email address.

    My situation was a little different from yours as you received the actual email and not a bounce. Because it was a gmail account and if it only happened one time, it could have been a software hicup at gmail.

    I would not concider it a problem unless it happens more than one time.

    I hope this has been helpful,
    Steve Yakim
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  • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
    It definitely looks like spam, as joaquin suggested. And it is very common.

    Just like one can use a personalization field such as [[email]] to put your subscribers' emails in the Subject Line, there are probably ways to use personalization fields in the "From Name" and "From Email" in certain autoresponder setups created by these spammers. I have received such emails before.

    This is definitely not ethical or even legal.

    You can check the email source by clicking "Show Original" in Gmail, in Yahoo click "View Full Header" to see where the email is actually coming from.

    In Gmail, you can also check your login history by clicking on "Details" in the bottom right corner of your email account.

    Fabian
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    • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
      Why would anyone want to do business whith someone who is rude enough to pretend to be you (to your face)?
      Would you open up your front door at night to someone who responds "It's you."when you ask who's there?
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        I'm thinking that the email account was hacked or the OP has some kind of botnet virus.

        The clue was when he said that a copy of the EN email was in his "Sent" folder, meaning that it probably was sent from his account.

        As others have suggested, check the headers for the real source.

        The tip about sending a reply is sharp, very sharp. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author gwpmike
    Clicking reply just put my email in the "to" field. But unless this happens again, I'm not going to be too concerned about it. Thank you for your suggestions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricardo Furtado
    Very enlightening responses. I never even knew that such a thing existed.
    Regards.
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    Ricardo Furtado

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