Someone is sending emails in my name

[Rickrock]

I received a spam email that my email sent by me to my niece's old email address was undeliverable. I did not send her an email. My sister and I have received emails from a cousin in the last couple of months that we know he did not send because he doesn't know how to use a computer and had me open his email account for him. When he is over, I open his account and tell him what emails he has received. Since I did not send an email from him for him to me or my sister, we knew those emails were fake. Someone is sending emails from me to my address book. Is there something that I can do? What do I do? Thanks.

 

[opinterph]

Sometimes it's as simple as changing your email password. You should do that now.

 

[72-Jay]

I agree with opinterph, change your email password just to be safe.

But its also very easy to make an email look like it came from someone other than the actual sender - all they need is your email address. (they don't need access to your account or anything because they aren't using it. In that type of case, if you look at the full headers you'll see it didn't even even originate at your email's server)

 

[talbot57]

I had this problem a few years ago. It appeared that my account was sending 500+ emails a day.

Changed password, the problem stopped.

 

[KaraBulut]

...Someone is sending emails from me to my address book. Is there something that I can do? What do I do? Thanks.

Look closely at the emails. Are they coming from your email address or are they emails that have your name but weren't sent from your account?

There are programs that some computers can get infected with that read the user's email address book. That address book is uploaded to the internet and is used to spam people in the address book. The emails will say "from Rickrock" but the email address in the "from" section will not be your email address. Often there's a link the in email . The scam is that since the email looks like it's from someone they know (Rickrock) they'll click on the link, which infects their computer and the cycle starts all over again.

If the emails are coming from your email account, then you need to change your password. Chances are that the emails aren't coming from your email account- instead it's from someone pretending to be you so that they can send emails to your friends pretending to be you.

 

[72-Jay]

The emails will say "from Rickrock" but the email address in the "from" section will not be your email address.

Actually the email address in the "from" section can be your email address....that part can be easily faked (they can put any email address they want in that field..it doesn't have to be where it actually came from).

If you look through the headers (assuming your email software/website has the option) you can see the server (but not full email address) it originated from...although that apparently can be spoofed to if the spammer uses the right software.

 

[Rickrock]

The reason I knew about it was because I received a few emails in my spam saying that the email I sent was not deliverable. It was to my niece's old email address and not her current one. I deleted those messages without opening them because I figured I might get infected worse than before. I don't have them to look back on. Several months ago my spam folder and my sister's spam received emails from a cousin that we knew had not sent them. We had deleted those as well without opening them. I have changed my email password in the last couple of days. I am concerned that my address book has been copied and they may be sending them to some of my family or friends.