Someone Using My Email Account - What Do I Do?

15 replies
I am getting spam emails and when I look at the properties of the email, it says it is coming from MY EMAIL ADDRESS!

So I went into the email logs and I gdo not see any outgoing emails and my SMTP bandwidth isn't that high.

Is someone somehow using my account to send spam? If so, would a simple passwordchange fix it? (I've already done that)

Anyone else had this experience?

Allen
#account #email
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    It's quite common. I've received spam mails bearing my address too. It's easily done through the spam programs because you can simply modify the From field. I think that is one technical failure of emails, From field should've been unchangable.
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  • Profile picture of the author jkiley
    Depending on your email account. If you are on hotmail/yahoo kind of account then simply changing password will fix it...but if you have some other account then it might be the "admin" himself having fun.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    You're being spoofed. Very common. There's not much you can do.

    They do this to bypass most spam prevention software. Since it "looks" like it's originating from your own domain, it tends to work.
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    • Profile picture of the author webwyn
      As mentioned, it sounds like EMail spoofing where your EMail address is used by someone else (even by worms) as the sender.

      In general, you may get a lot of EMails being reported as undeliverable and this may the be first that you become aware of it.

      Changing your password isn't enough to prevent this type of spoofing.

      Further information can be found: E-mail spoofing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      As mentioned it could be malware causing this so keeping your security up to date is always advisable.
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  • Profile picture of the author article_marketer
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author deskmonkey
      Originally Posted by article_marketer View Post

      I used to get that all the time, I changed to Gmail and havent had any problems since.
      I use Gmail too, but I still receive spoofed emails. Luckily, Gmail's spam filters are so good that all spoofed emails end up in my spam box without me having to do a thing.

      Allen, there really isn't very much you can do to avoid email spoofing. Just like anyone can send snail mail and write a fake or someone else's return address, so too can people send using faked email addresses.

      That said, while there's no way to prevent people from spoofing your email address, there is a way to avoid receiving spoofed emails. Have a look at using SPF records (or ask your host -- they should know it better) for your mail. SPF records, while not foolproof, should make it easier for your mail server/client to spot spoofed emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author Colin Evans
    Hi Allen,

    I have this happen all time, especially with the reply email addresses I use for lists. I ended up writing my own PHP script which checks incoming emails against a white list of email addresses from autoreponder backups and from my contact database.

    It automatically forwards emails on the whitelist to a gmail account (it won't forward any email which has been spoofed with my own email address).

    I've never developed the script any further because I don't know if there's any interest in it...
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    Allen,
    This is very normal for spammers to spoof others emails. Contact your host and ask them to install filters. There is an app they can install to stop this but I can not think of it's name off hand. I have had the same thing and after I got the app installed on my servers I have not had a bit of trouble..

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author Shakul
    They are simply spoofing the from field in the headers.

    Check the headers and find out the ip address of the sender/spammer and report him to his ISP or hosting provider.

    Shakul
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  • Profile picture of the author deskmonkey
    @IM Magazine: Unless it really originated from your email account, then no, there's no danger of having your email address blacklisted. Blacklists are usually by mail server IP address or hostname, not the email address specifically. Spoofed emails can be identified by the headers, so if those email were spoofed, then you're safe.

    Now, if someone really did manage to hack your account to send spam, then that's a different story. Still, considering the nature of the spam and the fact that such spam is usually sent in bulk, it's more likely that they used a mailing list on their own server to send them. Besides, if they did hack your account, sending you an email would be the least likely thing for them to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author zeurois
    Nobody hacked in your account and nobody is sending spam as being sent from your address. they just alter the "from" header in the email giving it the "to" value.

    this is a common practice because when you push the spam button, you'll flag your own email address as spam and not the original one. And this way you can't report them, you can't reply.. it's just spam after all... Just ignore it.

    Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

    I am getting spam emails and when I look at the properties of the email, it says it is coming from MY EMAIL ADDRESS!

    So I went into the email logs and I gdo not see any outgoing emails and my SMTP bandwidth isn't that high.

    Is someone somehow using my account to send spam? If so, would a simple passwordchange fix it? (I've already done that)

    Anyone else had this experience?

    Allen
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    • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
      Originally Posted by zeurois View Post

      Nobody hacked in your account and nobody is sending spam as being sent from your address. they just alter the "from" header in the email giving it the "to" value.

      this is a common practice because when you push the spam button, you'll flag your own email address as spam and not the original one. And this way you can't report them, you can't reply.. it's just spam after all... Just ignore it.
      Actually you can report it because that email still has an out-going tracker on it.. Most the time if you check the "Raw" headers you can see the sending mail server...

      I dont have the link but internic or something has a form that you can enter the email headers and it will tell you exactly where the email came from.

      Would I waste my time reporting it ?? No.. At the same time though if it causes too much of a problem Allen's domain name could get blacklisted by the people that are being spammed and think it is coming from his server.

      James
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      • Profile picture of the author zeurois
        I was saying the spammers don't actually send all the emails as being sent by Allen, but every receiver will get its own email address put in the "From" header.

        Why do I say such thing? Because it happened to me too, because there are few more people in this thread saying it happened to them as well and because nobody ever sent me an email saying "dude, you're spamming me".



        And yes, you're right, in most cases you can track and find the server from where the email was sent.

        Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

        Actually you can report it because that email still has an out-going tracker on it.. Most the time if you check the "Raw" headers you can see the sending mail server...

        I dont have the link but internic or something has a form that you can enter the email headers and it will tell you exactly where the email came from.

        Would I waste my time reporting it ?? No.. At the same time though if it causes too much of a problem Allen's domain name could get blacklisted by the people that are being spammed and think it is coming from his server.

        James
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  • Profile picture of the author AverageGuy
    I think they simply put your email in "from" field when they sent it. You have no way to prevent this. Just delete it.


    david
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  • Profile picture of the author ss442
    I had my email address hijacked and someone began sending out thousands of emails that appeared to be coming from my address. I contacted Verizon by phone and reported it at the same time my account was shut down for exceeding the outbound limit (didn't know they had one)

    I had to wait 24 hours for it to clear but, I have another alias in the same account that continued to work fine. With Verizon you can have up to 10 different aliases.

    Don't know who you have but I use a primary for general communication and another for certain e-commerce. Might be an idea.
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    Ed Sunderland

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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    Wow!

    Thanks everybody!

    I feel better now.

    Allen
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    Every day I check the obituaries. If I don't see my name there, then I know it's going to be a good day!
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