Re: Someone sending e-mails with my address by N
N
Sat Apr 17 19:44:20 CDT 2004
In article <04f601c42499$24277b60$a301280a@phx.gbl>,
anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> I have been receiving various "failure to deliver"
> messages stating that messages from my hotmail address
> have been denied because of content, etc. The problem is
> that I have not been sending these messages. In fact, I
> have never seen the addresses to which they are supposedly
> being sent. I don't want someone sending these in my name
> and with my address. What should I do?
The most common cause will be a computer (not yours, necessarily) infected
with a virus, and with your email address stored somewhere, anywhere on the
HDD. You will be told that it is somebody with your email address in their
address book; but that is no longer true. Your email address need only be
one of dozens in the "To:", or "Cc:" list when your best friend sent an
email to you, and to one of her cousins, whom you don't know. Her cousin is
infected, the virus pulls your email address from the email in her cousin's
message store, and forges it as the sender. Of course, most spam these days
also has dozens of other email addresses in "To:", or "Cc:", so it may even
be a fellow spam victim, a stranger you don't know, who has the infected
computer and your email address.
Less common, but not impossible, is spammer forgery. In June, 2003, I was
graced with such an event. I received at least 200 MTA bounces, a taunt, a
challenge, and four MUA (MailWasher) fake bounces.
There is little that you can do about it, except to filter them out.
--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint