Community Newsletter: Q&A: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?!
- 10/2/08 4:45 PM
Password Theft
by opablair - 9/27/08 5:17 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I believe someone has acquired your password. We all get comfortable and forget to change them often enough.
Do I send spam to myself? Definitely not, so who does it!
by plateaux2046 - 9/27/08 5:18 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Ted and CNET Folks,
The question you posted, concerns me for a long time, too.
I receive many mails, allegedly sent by myself.
Here below is an example - to protect my privacy I have changed my email adress into <my_email@my_email.com>.
I have asked my provider (my_email.com) about a solution. They told me to get a spamfilter. LOL. I never heard about a spamfilter that prevents you to become a fake-spammer.
Somebody knows about this problem or suggests a solution?
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Am I a fake spammer?
by plateaux2046 - 9/27/08 5:20 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi CNET and Ted,
Just like Ted I am sending allegedly spam to my self.
What is worse, that I sends also spam to others.
Many times that allegedly my spam is undeliverable, and the postmaster notifies me about the undeliverable status of my spamming.
Here below is an example.
For privacy reasons I have changed my email address into <my_email@my_email.com>
Received: from cpsmtp-eml110.kpnxchange.com ([10.94.168.110]) by CPEXBE-EML03.kpnsp.local with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:47:28 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report;
report-type=delivery-status;
boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C92096.D1594ADB"
Received: from <my_email.com> ([my isp) by cpsmtp-eml110.kpnxchange.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:47:26 +0200
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Received: from lflex01.legacyforlife.net ([66.162.172.68]) by hpsmtp-eml03.kpnxchange.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:45:35 +0200
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Return-Path: <>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 27 Sep 2008 02:45:35.0353 (UTC) FILETIME=[1DEDCE90:01C9204B]
Content-class: urn:content-classes:dsn
Subject: Undeliverable: Not read: longing for better s(e)>'<u@l life
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:47:28 +0200
Message-ID: <fDzUa6C3m000051a4@lflex01.legacyforlife.net>
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Thread-Topic: longing for better s(e)>'<u@l life
Thread-Index: AckcMPhlpxXYdOsRQL62gC4RAmsPXwEGhNB6ABLxbUE=
From: "System Administrator" <postmaster@kpnxchange.com>
To: <my_email@my_email.com>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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charset="UTF-8"
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Content-Type: message/delivery-status
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Reporting-MTA: dns; CPEXBE-EML03.kpnsp.local
Final-Recipient: RFC822; mineiden@LegacyForLife.net
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
X-Supplementary-Info: <lflex01.legacyforlife.net #5.1.1>
X-Display-Name: mineiden@LegacyForLife.net
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id <01C9204A.73D86500@CPEXBE-EML03.kpnsp.local>; Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:40:50 +0200
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Content-Type: multipart/report;
report-type=disposition-notification;
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Content-class: urn:content-classes:mdn
Subject: Not read: longing for better s(e)>'<u@l life
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:45:04 +0200
Message-ID: <1AE66FD5BDA59941AA6619C8974FCC76226638E9@CPEXBE-EML03.kpnsp.local>
X-MS-Has-Attach:
X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
Thread-Topic: longing for better s(e)>'<u@l life
Thread-Index: AckcMPhlpxXYdOsRQL62gC4RAmsPXwEGhNB6
From: <my_email@my_email.com>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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charset="UTF-8"
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WW91ciBtZXNzYWdlDQoNCiAgVG86ICAgICAgIHBhdWxzaGludG9AaGV0bmV0Lm5sDQoNCndhcyBu
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Content-Type: message/disposition-notification
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Final-Recipient: RFC822; my_email@my_email.com
Disposition: automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; deleted
X-MSExch-Correlation-Key: Enl5nJbeBU2oejTBKOO8TQ==
Original-Message-ID: <76301.495.836.384.707.1261710268.squirrel@LegacyForLife.net>
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The same happens to me
by Maria Christina Lascano - 9/27/08 5:54 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have the same problem, I a can't block myself.. I need to know what to do
E-Mail Spoofing
by WxULM - 9/27/08 6:02 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are a couple of ways that you could get an e-mail from yourself without you sending it to yourself, or even having an infected computer.
If a computer is infected with a virus program, it simply grabs e-mail addresses from that computer's e-mail address book and sends a copy of itself to everyone on the list. Viruses are also able to spoof or fake who they came from, making it very difficult for the average computer user to track who they really came from.
In other instances, programs called web bots or crawlers that reside on the Internet spend their existence scanning web pages for e-mail addresses to harvest and add to e-mail address databases of not only viruses, but also other business sites for the purpose of sending unsolicited e-mails.
Receiving an e-mail from yourself that you did not send simply implies that either your address was harvested from a site that you had it posted on, and/or the e-mail came from someone else who has an infected machine who also has your e-mail address in their e-mail address book.
In order to fix the situation, every computer on the Internet would need to be patched with up-to-date virus protection, which is never going to happen. So, get used to the fact that your e-mail address has been placed into a virus or spam e-mail database.
You could try this precaution. First, let your friends and family know that you think your e-mail address has been used by spam software from someone else and encourage those you e-mail regularly to have up-to-date virus protection. Also, create a new specific e-mail address for family and friends and ask that they never send forwards to that address or add it to their own group mailing lists.
Use a second address when registering or posting on various sites. Some sort of e-mail address that doesn't identify with you personally, and never use that one with your friends and family. That way, when that address becomes compromised, you won't need to worry about your name being dragged in the dirt.
Spammy impertionation
by Alain Martel1 - 9/27/08 6:53 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your biggest question is: How can this happen?
The answer:
Somebody that have your e-mail address is infected by some spyware. That spyware have collected your address, along with any other it could find, and sent it back to somebody. Then, that somebody sold it to some spammer.
Other possibilitys:
You submited your e-mail address somewhere. They may had strict privacy policy, but where acquired by another entity that chose NOT to honor that policy, and exchanged/sold the e-mail list.
OR
An employee lifted a list of e-mails from the database and sold it to somebody.
OR
You put your e-mail address on a forum, chat or somewhere else and a spammer's harvester bot found it.
OR
One of your correspondent forwarded one of your messages to somebody whos computer is infected, or, if not that one, somebody else down the line...
Or....
What can you do to prevent it?
Sadly, just about nothing, short of droping that address and getting a new one. Your e-mail is already in the spammers database, and you just can't remove it.
Getting a new e-mail address is not even safe, as long as at least one of your correspondent may be, or get, infected by amy one of the many spywares/virus infesting peoples computers.
As for having your address filtered out, most peoples should know that e-mail header forgery is extremely common. That the name in the "From:" field of spam is NEVER the real one. Todays spam filters don't rely on the from to filter, but on an analysis of the content for some teltale caracteristics of the content of the message.
Tracking back the author? Almost impossible for almost anybody unless the aothor made some gross mistake.
Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?!
by puter illit - 9/27/08 7:06 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Same thing happens to me, I'm not sure exactly but I asked my son and he said that their cloning the email address. Spammers have a way to spoof your address although its not actually coming from your email account but any returns goes to them. The bad new's is their using your email address for their spams, the good news is it's not a virus or affecting your machine.
Hoax mail
by frollo17 - 9/27/08 8:45 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The only way that this has possibly happened is somebody has used the telnet to send a hoax email and made the address the same as yours
or
They have used a program that enables them to choose the 'fake' email address when sending the email to you
I very much doubt this is a serious problem, probably best to just ignore the message
Spam from Me?
by Ted Bruner - 9/27/08 10:01 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I also had that problem some time ago. What I did was to include a rather pointed caveat signature of my true originals. This is not mimicked by the spammers and those who have learned to trust my mailings can tell the difference. That way I don't need to change my address, just keep the signature up-to-date.
What was odd about my situation was that I use only Juno, and thought that was pretty much ignored. I chose them to keep my email address permanent; all those who change their address with each and every ISP change run too high a risk of loss - loss of their friends and loss of incoming.
Media-Ted
Spam e-mail received, but it's coming from me?!
by radiojerry - 9/27/08 10:22 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Ted,
Your address was most likely harvested from either a web page or from someone you sent e-mail to. I manage my own web sites through a very good web hosting service and some of the steps I take may work for you. With 8 active e-mail addresses, my average number of spams received per week is ZERO. I only use one e-mail address when visiting a site that requests one. The address I use is spam box trapper protected. If I expect a reply from the site author, I disable the spam box trapper and when the reply comes, I add it to the "white" list and re-enable the box trapper. I know this e-mail address has been compromised by someone because every once in a while I will receive an e-mail through the box trapper from a mail server saying that an e-mail that I supposedly sent (but did't) reached an invalid address.
Now let's look at web pages. I have NO direct e-mail links on any of my web pages. What I display is a GIF image that is a "picture" of an e-mail address. Until someone comes up with a spambot that can read the words off a sign in a photograph, this is the only safe way to display e-mail addresses. At one time, I was offering custom addresses for my amateur radio club. I had an "example" e-mail address displayed using regular text. I had part of the example in italics and part in bold text. Additionally, I embedded quite a bit of html code between the letters that would not change the actual display. It didn't work. In less than a week, my "example" e-mail address was collecting spam and they were showing up in my "catchall" e-mail account. The GIF images have proven to be safe. To wrap it all up, if you do not have web pages and you have no control over your e-mail address, there may be little you can do. I know I have at least one address that is being used for sending spam but it was compromised outside my steel doors.
Jerry L
gif as email
by jhampa - 10/4/08 7:09 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it's coming from me?! by radiojerryI am curious how that gif as email works. Most sites have the email link mailto:someone@x.com So how would someone email, cut and paste from the gif? It would be nice to know how you do that, I have 6 sites and want to remove all the emails on them.
JS
gif e-mail displays
by radiojerry - 10/4/08 4:31 PM In reply to: gif as email by jhampaThe GIF image is totally non-clickable. The sender must write it down and physically transpose it to his e-mail client. Anything less would not be secure. I include in the "Alt" text a note saying that manual entry is required.
Jerry L
Spam e-mail apparently coming from you to you
by AntiqueWorks - 9/27/08 10:43 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This may be a place to start looking: BOT mail, or a BOT in an e-mail??? I'd never heard of it until last week, when at work on Thursday we all received an e-mail from our tech person saying one of us apparently opened an attachment that appeared to be legitimate but actually was a BOT--a thing that gets into our system, grabs our e-mail address(es) and then sends out spam with those legitimate e-mail addresses. We're a public school, so our e-mail addresses are structured like: jdoe@publicschool.k12.edu.mt (mt = Montana). Our IP provider sent our administration a warning that we were going to be penalized and/or shut off from the server because of the excessive outgoing traffic with attachments, and that's how the tech person discovered the BOT deal. So, if what the tech person has told us is legitimate, we've been hit by a BOT (whatever that is), and in our situation, our access to e-mail and the internet has been severed, not a good situation for a public school. If I had the "official warning" from our provider, I'd paste it here so you could see the exact information. The bottom line is that because of a BOT, we've lost access to our computers until the culprit has been found and the system cleaned.
"a BOT (whatever that is)"
by btljooz - 9/29/08 11:19 AM In reply to: Spam e-mail apparently coming from you to you by AntiqueWorksHere is what a "BOT"(net) is:
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci1030284,00.html#
P.S.: I already knew the answer to that, but to prove a point and illustrate it at the same time, I used my search engine to find that link. Now, always remember, your search engine (i.e.: Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Ask.com, etc.) can be your friend. 
Spam E.mail
by jw1ls5n0129 - 9/27/08 12:05 PM In reply to: Spam e-mail received, but it’s coming from me?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi , well you must have a weak e.mail address ,change it for a stronger ,either make your own or Microsoft will do it for you and if they do it remember it . then just don't delete it go to edit and pick unread then delete it . also a strong password and change it every so often . hope this helps . chEErs John.
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