Comments for Someone's sending email that looks like it's from me to my contacts, what can I do?

Comment from steven rothenberg on 2012-01-31

2012-01-31T18:56:09Z

Everything I read sounds like my situation EXCEPT that this behavior continued even after I deleted all the contacts from my account (after exporting them). It appears to be picking up e-mail addresses from my sent box or inbox. I have changed my password again and also changed security answers as suggested - we'll see what happens.

Once they have collected the email addresses out of your address book it's too late. They've copied them elsewhere and can spam them however they like.

31-Jan-2012

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Comment from MoreOff on 2012-01-22

2012-01-22T22:26:03Z

Leo, I only read the first 5 comments on the web page before typing this comment in, but I hope this can help some of Your Readers.
I use Thunderbird to get (and send) my AT&T/Yahoo! email using POP3 and SMTP.
But I also use Mailwasher Free first to see what is being sent to my web mail In-Box before I will let Thunderbird get it on my computer.
Mailwasher Free will highlight email from anyone as 'SPAM' in RED, if it hasn't been told that the address is a 'Friend' (GREEN).
Putting the mouse pointer on the Senders address lets me see the full email address so I can decide if the message is from someone I know or I don't know.
If the message is from someone I want to get mail from I can click the SPAM button on the left of the line to change it to 'Friend'.
Mailwasher Free has a function/option that IT can Remember the address is SPAM if it sees it again, but I don't use that option.
I will Log On to my web mail account and check the box on that messages line and then click the Spam button so AT&T/Yahoo! can know I consider it to be a Spam message, hoping that They (AT&T/Yahoo!) will send any more messages from That Address into Their Spam folder instead of to my In-box.
Since I use Thunderbirds Address Book for my Contact List, all the Contacts I put in my AT&T/Yahoo! online Address Book are addresses like:
abuse@att.net
abuse@yahoo.com
abuse@yahoo.cn
Addresses that I know a Spammer would Love to send mail to. ;-)
Also in Mailwasher Free, by clicking on the RED lined message the first 20 lines of the message can be read.
I hope this was helpful to someone.

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Comment from david on 2012-01-14

2012-01-15T06:03:51Z

i have noticed that e-mails have gone to my contacts because i get mailer -default messeage back i have not sent them and no sign of me sending any

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Comment from Bill Dier on 2011-12-22

2011-12-22T21:36:12Z

Leo, I read your comments about address book hacking and your text is like many of the other sites I've gone to. Long on talk, but short on solutions!! It appears that there are no real 'experts' on this subject, just a great deal of 'talk'. I use Thunderbird that accepts email from AT&T/Yahoo. Rouge emails are sent from Russia, Israel, Czech Republic and Turkey. I finally opened the link. It's to a Canadian pharmacy: Canadian Health & Care. I would like to see something more in-depth then what I read on your site.

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Comment from Piedad De la Maza on 2011-12-06

2011-12-06T21:00:37Z

My hotmail account was blocked by them because someone has been sending a lot of junk messages from it. Hotmail needs my mobile phone number, which I have sent many times today, but becasue I am not in the US, I have not received a code. What can I do???

This article discusses recovery options for the various ways that Hotmail accounts can be lost or compromised and I believe it applies here: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

06-Dec-2011

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Comment from Elle on 2011-12-02

2011-12-02T22:22:28Z

I am having this issue with emails being sent from an email address that "Looks" like it is from me but is an account that was closed over 10 years ago and AOL confirms that It was closed? The first part does look like the current email I use but the @ is aol.com which I do NOT use?? Does this mean they somehow gained this information from a friends OLD list? or ? Frustrated!

After that length of time I'd expect it's simply random spam. Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?!

02-Dec-2011

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Comment from salma on 2011-12-02

2011-12-02T14:09:13Z

hey jim. same thing with me. after i deleted my account my mom said she still got weird emails from me. is there absolutely nothing we can do now?

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Comment from Connie on 2011-11-28

2011-11-28T17:47:57Z

@Alamgir
You need to learn about internet safety. It looks like you posted your emails and other sensitive information in a public forum. You are lucky that it has been removed from your post. You also don't seem to understand that Ask Leo! is not Hotmail.

Here are some good sources on this site to learn more about internet safety:
How do I keep my computer safe on the internet?

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Comment from Alamgir Ahmed on 2011-11-28

2011-11-28T10:11:17Z

For God sake help me. I am sending this e-mail 2nd. time (on Saturday, October 15, 2011 4:46 PM). I am approx. 15 years old user of hotmail account. My account has been hacked, resultantly i can't sign-in due to inncorrect password.

I am sending my e-mail (as previous / first e-mail to hotmail)

Dear Sir/ Madam,

My hot mail id has been hacked 2-3 days before, password has been changed {email removed}. Kindly help me on urgent basis, as I am user more than 15 years. The hacker (culprit of money fraud) has mailed me (in other hotmail account even yahoo account and definitely all id’s in my account). You can contact on my yahoo account ({email removed}). After hacking, I received the following e-mail for your immediate action.

{rest of post removed}

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Comment from confused on 2011-11-26

2011-11-26T22:19:57Z

I have been suspecting my boyfriend has been cheating and I think he it looks like he uses my email

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Comment from Jim on 2011-11-22

2011-11-23T07:47:16Z

So to be clear - the horrendous problem is that once my email account is compromised and they have my contact list - its game over. They can just send emails to my contacts and craft their emails with a 'from:' value of my email address. No matter what i do; even if I obliterate my email account, let alone change my password - the horse has already bolted :-(

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Comment from Connie on 2011-11-16

2011-11-17T02:59:50Z

@glad
You certainly can, and should, make every attempt to gain control of your email account again through AOL. It'll probably take some work! If you do recover the account read everything you can about protecting it... and do share your horror story with friends to save them the same grief.

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Comment from glad on 2011-11-16

2011-11-17T01:24:20Z

I am one of those whose email account has been compromised- many of my contacts have received emails about viagra and nonsense emails - I have a free account with aol - according you, nothing can be done - is this a fact?

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Comment from Leerock18 on 2011-10-18

2011-10-18T16:51:41Z

I believe my account was just compromised. Is it possible for someone to send you an infected email, and than once you log into your account that email sends more emails to everyone in your contacts simultaneously? I've already changed my password and i am in the middle of a virus scan. Is it already too late for my contacts? is there any way i could have prevented this? The email that was sent to me was not opened or linked to.

Just recieving an infected mail will not do it - you'll have to have opened an attachment, or responded to a phishing attempt, or placed malware on your machine some other way or used a WiFi hotspot insecurely or had an easy to guess password or.... there are clearly many ways that accounts can be compromised. Make sure to read the section "Changing your password is not enough." above.

19-Oct-2011

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Comment from russell gomez on 2011-10-09

2011-10-09T14:17:49Z

i have been getting e-mails sent from my account selling viagra under the title "no subject"
please can you advise what to do

The article you just commented on covers one possibility, and this article the other: Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?!

09-Oct-2011

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Comment from Ro1 on 2011-10-06

2011-10-06T12:31:31Z

Hi, e-mails were sent to MY contacts seeming to have come from me. However nothing appeared in my Sent Items and there is no other proof that it came from other than my e-mail address in the From: address. I have a strong password, have NOT accessed my mail from a WiFi hotspot, or have given my password to anyone, or left my PC unattended. Please help.

And yet, the article you just commented on covers this case. It's most likely your account was hacked.

06-Oct-2011

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Comment from Sharon on 2011-09-12

2011-09-12T18:08:15Z

I am getting many emails that are intended for another person in my inbox and as junk mail. In turn my computer is randomly generating spam emails to people who are not in my address book but I have contact with. I have run a scan on computer which picked up virus but how do I get my email account differentiated from the other persons on hotmail. There seems to be no service contact.

This article discusses recovery options for the various ways that Hotmail accounts can be lost or compromised: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

14-Sep-2011

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Comment from Connie on 2011-08-30

2011-08-30T21:33:04Z

@anthoula
Virus protection on your computer will be of no assistance in this case as it sounds like your Yahoo account has been hacked into. You should immediately sign into your account (if you still can) and change the password, contact phone, and all of your security questions. This time make your password very long, complicated and secure.

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Comment from anthoula on 2011-08-30

2011-08-30T17:17:44Z

over 20 emails were sent from my account at the same time. " No Subject" and the threads are all different..
they are all for a Canadian drug company selling Viagra. My virus protection is up to date...what do I do now close yahoo email? I am assuming that each email has some of the 235 names in my address book.
What should I do now? I never open emails with No Subject, that is usually a clue.

The article you just commented on addresses exactly this. You may not need to close it. You should change your password and every piece of information that could be used to perform password recovery on the account.

30-Aug-2011

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Comment from mario on 2011-08-25

2011-08-25T07:41:31Z

Hi , somebody entered in my email account and is using it, my friends see me on line while I am not, I cannot enter it, does anyone have an emergency email in which I can tell them to block it?
thanks
appriciate Mario

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Comment from Wilmer on 2011-08-08

2011-08-08T19:33:36Z

Hello, thanks for sharing your knowledge on the spam emails.
I use hotmail service and I received several postmaster mails with the 'delivery status notification (Failure)' subject, all because of an email I didnt send, and some of those failure deliveries were contacts which are on my contact list. I went to the 'sent' folder and I found the spam email which I didnt send, and tried to see whom else that spam email was sent, but the 'To' field is empty, why is that?, and what do you recommend I should do?

Thanks very much

The "To:" line was probably empty because the person that hacked your account used BCC to send the spam. I recommend you follow the suggestions in the article you just commented on.

08-Aug-2011

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Comment from Matt Doyle on 2011-07-29

2011-07-30T03:12:30Z

This is the message that has hitched onto my address book: "whats up this is the best thing that ever happened to me" followed by a spam link.

I have completed multiple malware type scans, and they all say there is no problem. I removed my email address from my address book and it continued to send the messages to everyone else, but not me. I have emptied my address book, but obviously this is not convenient. Any suggestions?

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Comment from Mark J on 2011-07-29

2011-07-30T02:57:35Z

@Jessica
If your Yahoo email account is sending out the spam, closing it would stop the spam in most cases. But if the hackers copied your address book and are spoofing your email address, then the spam could continue, but this is not a common occurrence.

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Comment from jessica on 2011-07-29

2011-07-29T15:43:23Z

if i shut down my yahoo! account, will that solve the problem??

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Comment from franklin green on 2011-07-28

2011-07-28T13:35:25Z

someone is using my yahoo account and it is not me. plus sending my friends bad e-mails. what can i do?

That'll be this article: Someone's sending email that looks like it's from me to my contacts, what can I do?

28-Jul-2011

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Comment from Mark J on 2011-07-21

2011-07-21T23:09:08Z

@Miss Molly

If you can login to your Yahoo account, I suggest you immediately change your password and security question(s). Also verify that the alternate email address belongs to you, if not, change that too.

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Comment from Miss Molly on 2011-07-21

2011-07-21T17:27:46Z

As everyone else here, I too am having problems with my yahoo account. I'm sending single links to myself, contacts, and apparently to many other email addresses that I don't recognize, judging my sent folder. Considering I'm using dial up internet, and I had trouble loading every page of posts here, so forgive me if I repeat the same type of info that someone else already has. (I did read a few pages, please don't delete me Leo! ).

When going in to change my password, secret question and security seal, I noticed that there is a place in yahoo accounts that allows you to see your login history. I looked at mine, and OMG! Here's a little bit of what I saw:
Jul 19, 2011 2:00 PM Yahoo! Mobile Logged In Poland
Jul 19, 2011 4:47 PM Y! Messenger Authentication Logged In US
#Today# 3:17 AM Yahoo! Mobile Logged In Bulgaria
#Today# 11:23 AM Browser Mail Access AL, US
The later info being really me, and yes I had problems signing in today, it suggested I change my password. I do not use yahoo messenger. And I don't use my cell phone to check my email. I do, however, send pictures to my email via cell phone..not sure if that matters or not. The login history also shows that the people who are logging in with their cell phone lives in other countries, although when I traced the spam's IP, it came back to California. Figures...

My account may not be saved, but maybe this info will help others narrow down possible reasons of how these people are taking our accounts!

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Comment from sharon on 2011-07-18

2011-07-18T18:08:36Z

I don't want to join a club!!!!! I want to know how do I stop my hotmail account from sending things like to my friends " Have only powerful erection" This is coming from my hotmail account and people are wondering about me. I have told people that it is not from me, however, I have another account and WE are still getting these emails, that look like they are from me. Ever a Minister has contacted me and asked if I would stop sending these types of emails. I can't I am not sending this MESS.
I need help I don't need to comment to join a club of people who have been hacked, I need answers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This article discusses recovery options for the various ways that Hotmail accounts can be lost or compromised: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

18-Jul-2011

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Comment from jane hailey on 2011-06-03

2011-06-03T21:45:04Z

have been hacked My mother who is 86 thinks I'm sending dirty stuff !!!

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Comment from Rick Harrison on 2011-04-03

2011-04-03T16:24:06Z

This is an informative and well written letter explaining this common problem. However, you should at least mention that adding an SPF record will help this problem considerably. Even though most of your readers may not be technical enough to do this themselves, it is something that I believe many email hosts can/do provide.

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Comment from Linda on 2011-03-26

2011-03-27T01:57:09Z

spam was being sent to all of my contacts so I deleted ALL contacts...yet when I start a NEW email and type the first letter of the TO:address a huge list of address's that I don't recognise pop up to pick from! Any way to help me?

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Comment from DRIEL on 2011-03-21

2011-03-21T22:00:00Z

Is it possible this happened to me through hotmail as I have added it to my Verizon Android phone? I am not certain but am curious as to whether that is how I was compromised? Any ideas would be welcomed. I have deleted the email accounts from my phone and changed all my email passwords as well as deleted my contact lists. Should this be enough? Thanks in advance.

This newer article details not only the steps you should take, but takes a few guesses as to how it might have happened: Why am I getting (or sending) emails that contain only a link or spam from my contacts?

24-Mar-2011

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Comment from oceanicbankplcbello@gmail.com on 2011-01-13

2011-01-13T21:35:18Z

I WANT TO BLOCK MY BOX,{removed by moderator}@gmail.com

I don't know what you mean by "block my box". Perhaps this article will have what you're looking for: My contact list is getting spam from me, what do I do?

14-Jan-2011

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Comment from patrice on 2011-01-05

2011-01-05T17:10:07Z

Someone is sending spam Ads on my email page. Is there any way I can find out who is sending this, can I backlog and find out their email somehow?

I think they may have downloaded this Java network as a virus, so now Ads can be posted freely on my email.

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Comment from John Neeting on 2010-12-21

2010-12-22T01:14:39Z

One easy way to tell ALL your contacts how to tell if an e-mail is really from you is this .....
When e-mail accounts are compromised, that's just what IS compromised. What you actually write can't be predicted so just send an e-mail to all your contacts telling them that legitimate e-mails from YOU can be identified by a word or phrase at the end of the actual e-mail.. eg:'yowzer-yowzer'
Spammers may have everyone's e-mail and may even attempt to send spy bots for looting but they cannot predict what key word or phrase you have to enter in all messages to tell the recipient that the e-mail is valid. If you get an e-mail from a friend that does not have this agreed word at the end of the message, you can investigate further or scrap it.

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Comment from cher on 2010-12-18

2010-12-19T07:09:12Z

Does deleting contacts from your account help or is the whole thing gonna keep happening because its "hacked"?.... my teacher was sent viagra emails with my address. :(.... funny but embarrassing

typically once it's hacked the damage is done.

19-Dec-2010

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Comment from Scott on 2010-12-15

2010-12-15T10:28:17Z

I have had my email 'hacked' and emails sent to my contacts. I got pretty annoyed by this and decided to close my account. Even after I closed my account emails were still being sent to my contacts with my email address, that I closed, as the sender.

One of the reasons that I advise against spending a lot of time trying to "close" an account is that a hacker who's setup the right information in the account can frequently reopen it almost instantly. Best to simply tell all your contats that you've been hacked and move on to a new account.

15-Dec-2010

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Comment from bettina on 2010-12-07

2010-12-08T02:28:42Z

I can't open my email because someone has hacked into my account and is sendig emails to my contacts and who nows who else is getting them and what they're sending . I need to know how I can get my email account back and open my emails !

This article discusses recovery options for the various ways that Hotmail accounts can be lost or compromised: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

08-Dec-2010

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Comment from Tammy on 2010-12-07

2010-12-07T19:15:16Z

There are e-mails being sent to my contacts that look like I sent. That is bad enough but what makes it worse is that it says I made money on-line and includes a links for my contacts to click on. This has happened twice with-in 4 days.

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Comment from vikki on 2010-11-30

2010-11-30T18:05:52Z

I need help stopping people from using my account to send emails from my e mail address.
All I saw on this page was yes they are doing it.
I need help to resolve the issue!

Actually the last line of the article tells you exactly what you need to do.

01-Dec-2010

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Comment from David Ascher on 2010-11-21

2010-11-21T16:10:19Z

This is a wonderful article that basically says there is nothing you can do to protect your email account from being compromised other than not use easy to guess passwords.

This is not at all true. I have email accounts with several providers and only those hosted by mail.com have ever been hacked - and multiple times in the past few months. My wife also uses multiple email accounts and a different personal computer - Only her account with mail.com has been compromised.

Imagine, if you will, a "virus" so clever and devious that it is undetectable by any virus scanner currently available. Further imagine that this clever virus is happy to restrict its attack to only one of the 12 different email providers that it finds on your personal computer.

It seems to me your best bet is to move to a different email provider. gmail.com seems to be the most sophisticated of the providers I've dealt with in terms of security - and given google's reputation, I'd expect them to be more serious about security than any other general email provider.

AND gmail service is free and offers much more capabilities than almost any other email provider - still for free.

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Comment from Tracey on 2010-11-12

2010-11-12T21:22:27Z

Hi drugoutletmeds is sending all my contacts emails with attachments i then get postmaster sending failed reports to me (100s per day) but a friend called me today to say they are actually getting through. how do i stop these emails being sent??

Please read this article which discusses your recovery options for the various ways that Hotmail accounts can be lost or compromised: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

12-Nov-2010

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Comment from Earl Albin on 2010-11-11

2010-11-11T22:09:00Z

Someone hacked my Yahoo account. The,"Benificiary," in this case are illegal prescription companies pretending to be in Canada (likely sugar pills). Anway by what method would the virus get the password?

It's typically not a virus at all, but rather a hacker guessing or gaining access to your password somehow.

12-Nov-2010

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Comment from angel fox on 2010-11-11

2010-11-11T14:37:13Z

Millions of people are being hacked into through hotmail, including me. they are sending emails from me to my contact list. Why is hotmail acting like its our fault and there is nothing we can do? seriously? You know you can prevent this. Please do it.

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Comment from Robert visciglia on 2010-11-04

2010-11-04T20:16:13Z

How do I cure being hacked by the pill company? Do I need a new email account?

Perhaps, but it depends on how you've been "hacked", and who you mean by "the pill company".

05-Nov-2010

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Comment from Eli Fatz on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T23:20:09Z

I have been hacked twice, both times while I was using Outlook 2003 and then Outlook 2007. They used my address book to do mailings to all my contacts, all pointing to a Chinese Website selling iPhones and iPods, etc., with the subject heading selling Cheap Computers, iPhones iPods, etc. This happened AFTER I purchased something on eBay from a Chinese seller and I got hacked by their email! I removed Outlook 2003 and never got hacked again until I installed Outlook 2007. Coincidence? Seriously doubt it! So far I see no cures or fixes and Microsoft denies it even being real. It most certainly has to be my fault! The real fix is NOT using Microsoft Out 2007, 2003 and having the address book stored on your computer.

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Comment from Bluz on 2010-11-02

2010-11-02T16:42:58Z

So Ken, I too have the pill company e-mail referenced in the questions above. But one thing I was unclear about. The e-mails appear to be coming from my account and going to my contact list. However, there's no record of the e-mails going out as "sent." Does this mean that the "hacker" has compromised the account, or is there something different at work here?

You're likely hacked. Some spammers are savvy enough to remove the messages from the Sent Folder. If it's going to yout contacts it's likely related to your account. Assume it's hacked.

04-Nov-2010

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Comment from Ken on 2010-10-30

2010-10-30T19:56:04Z

www.compillsrxus.com is using my e-mail address to all my contacts. what can I do???? Please help.
Thanks
Ken

Sounds like spam, as described in the article above.

01-Nov-2010

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Comment from mary arzberger on 2010-09-28

2010-09-28T12:22:00Z

please help!!!
someone has stolen my account. i have lost all my contacts.i cant even gain access to my account.people keep calling. they got an email from me saying i was stranded in england and needed $3000 to get home. how do i stop this?

You want this article: What are my Lost Hotmail Account and Password Recovery Options?

29-Sep-2010

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Comment from Sam C. on 2010-09-27

2010-09-27T07:06:38Z

I sent an email to all my contacts telling them I've been hacked, and to not open anything that purports to come from me if it says "No Subject." Instead, delete it as soon as they see it. Every time I send an email, it has a subject title, and since all my contacts know what I'm about, they will recognize most if not all subjects as coming from me. "No Subject" will not come from me. This will not stop the spam, but it may help protect my contacts from opening something that contains a virus, and in any event, will keep them from wasting their time.

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Comment from Mindy on 2010-09-19

2010-09-20T03:26:55Z

Becky W. I know exactly what your talking about, my hotmail account is like... 5 years old and im getting postmaster failures every milisecond! its pissing me off! I want to kill it! I havn't touched any type of stupid advertisment or anything like that, so it can just die >.

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Comment from Merlin on 2010-08-26

2010-08-26T15:47:57Z

This is about the comment from Josh. I have also come across this "huhu" virus in hotmail, and using google with various search terms it looks like THIS article is the only reference to this bug. How can this "huhu" virus be removed?

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Comment from john young on 2010-07-31

2010-07-31T09:10:10Z

Somehow somebody got my password and spammed my contacts, then deleted them from my account.

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Comment from alpha on 2010-07-23

2010-07-23T12:24:45Z

how do you chane my email aDDres in fAcebOok

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Comment from mollie clark on 2010-07-20

2010-07-20T21:29:23Z

someone from yahoo instant message keeps sending things everytime i get on yahoo to people in a foriegn langauge to people on my list how do i stop it i tryed changing my name my password its not working people are getting mad with me i m not not sending the file how can i stop this

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Comment from Becky W. on 2010-06-30

2010-07-01T03:21:27Z

My 10+ year old hotmail account received an email from someone I knew better a few years back- no subject, just a url in the text and a couple of attachments. I thought I didnt open it but maybe I did...because I remembered it when I started getting input from folks on my address list that they were getting the same thing.

I cleared most of my contacts, but it seems the damage has already been done, and I keep seeing some postmaster failures for a couple of address list connections, so it seems to be methodically running periodically- sending to about 5 addresses at a time.

OK-It sounds like I have to give up my account and start fresh. Do I need to tell everyone in my address book to do the same? That would go over well...no chance I could send them a link to a fixityourselfshop? And if I start a fresh Hotmail account, this virus wont jump to that email account?

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Comment from Roger F on 2010-06-16

2010-06-16T17:17:22Z

This is happening to me too. I thought it was a virus on my particular PC and ran all the anti malware programs I could find. I eventually reformatted my hard drive and lost a few $1000 of software attempting to eliminate the virus--no luck. It still mailed ads for viagra and porn to all my contacts. I changed the name and extension of my windows address book, then noticed it was going after my contacts in my Yahoo email. I went through all my contacts and copied each email address into the 'notes' window (changing the '@' character to '(AT)') then replaced the email address with a dummy 'raf@novirus.com'. Now whenever the attacker tries to send the email, I get a 'failure to deliver' notification. In this way I've been able to determine that the virus is not on my personal PC. I have left that off and/or unplugged from the network where I work. Instead, I have been using other computers. But I still receive 'failure to deliver' notifications now and then. Perhaps these are test to see if my contacts have changed back to real addresses. The only problem with this approach is the name field is not shown in the notification, so I have no way of tracking who is being targeted. I could go back and re-edit my contacts to 'name'@novirus.com since the domain itself is false (I hope) but that is a lot of work I don't really have time for. This thing has cost me way too much time and money already.

I'm left wondering why you have gone through all this. As pointed out in the article, someone has access to your account - so change your password and all other personal information to lock the hacker out.

19-Jun-2010

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Comment from Helen B on 2010-06-11

2010-06-12T03:00:44Z

This has happened twice. I've changed my password and added malware. I am hearing from a lot of people that this happened to them from the came canadian pharmacy (who knows if it's really a pharmacy). Is there any agency that traces this kind of stuff. Everyone in my contact list got it.

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Comment from Desmo on 2010-06-06

2010-06-06T17:00:34Z

Curious my PW is comprimised when I never enter it. I use Messenger (click to auto login in to Hotmail) and it saves it encrypted. I also changed it since the last time this happened (just in case).
This time i noticed it stopped once I sent a legit message out so that must have stopped the script from running through all my Contacts (and it send the SPAM in pairs of contact in alph order. I deleted my Contact list just in case.

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Comment from Desmo on 2010-06-03

2010-06-04T03:59:15Z

Somehow recently my Hotmail account has sent out links with ads to everyone on my Contact List. It sent the messages out in pairs as well and there was no subject in the Subject line. I had even chnaged my PW since the last time it happened. Last time it did it at 2am when my PC was shut down. This time i was online and noticed the messages and once I sent out a legit message the SPAM stopped sending messages to the remaining folks on my list. It has been sending them in pairs in alpha order. I run and scan with MS Security and McAfee and my PC is clean.
I do run Messenger all the time but only to notify me if I have email.
I wonder if that is the issue?

I do get lots of incoming SPAM on Hotmail and wonder if i get caught there when opening something although Hotmail doesn't seem to do a good job screening.

Please re-read the article you just commented on. Seems clear to me, as I said there: "my guess is that your email account has indeed been compromised." - You need to change your password and more.

05-Jun-2010

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Comment from gordon on 2010-05-21

2010-05-21T20:50:23Z

This got sent to about 59 people in my add book or from a forwarded e mail
look?Beautiful China's online store
I recommend to you a very good shopping site >.
The quality of product is had better, the service is perfect,
and price is had better, the speed of the deliver is very fast.
There are own warehouse and store,
there is customer in the whole world, receive customer very high praise.
MSN: [email removed]

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Comment from josh on 2010-05-19

2010-05-19T12:37:56Z

theres an email getting around at the moment (may 2010) with subject "huhu" and a link to this address [email address removed] clicking on that address from within your hotmail client results in the same email you received (and clicked on the link contained therein) being sent to everybody in your address book. i would love to know how this works? is my password compromised? is it a security hole in hotmail only?

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Comment from Vixster on 2010-05-05

2010-05-05T11:48:00Z

My father, not very computer literate has just experienced this problem too. I have checked his sent box and the spam mails have not come from his account and he too has received a copy so it would appear that someone has managed to access his yahoo account, collected all his contact details and is now spamming the list and making it look like the mails are from him. I don't think it is an issue of using CC rather than BCC because it has been sent to the entire address book. He hasn't contacted Yahoo yet but surely it must be a problem at their end or are we saying that a spammer has managed to read his computer when he was logged on and then harvest the info? Is there anything he can do or will his contact list now get passed round the world of spammers? I'll advise him to run a virus check, change his password and set up an additional email address to use in future and see how that works but any other advice would be welcome.

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Comment from Donna Ide on 2010-05-01

2010-05-01T15:46:04Z

I have this person using my name & email address I know who this person is but I need to prove it.What can I do?

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Comment from Sandy on 2010-02-16

2010-02-16T15:32:16Z

I have the same problem. Twice now I had e-mails sent to contacts from my address book. The first time I took the computer to the shop, installed malwarebytes antimalware and thought I waa safe. On Monday, 15.02.2010 it happened again. The computer shop says I need to contact Yahoo. I did contact them and all I received was an acknowledgement.
How can I delete my Yahoo e-mail address?
What else can I do?

Thank you

Sandy

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Comment from Joao on 2010-01-05

2010-01-06T03:28:31Z

Leo,

I think the email account does not need to be compromised for this to happen... but correct me if I am wrong:

1st, many people still keep sending emails to loads of people in CC rather than using BCC. That makes those emails easy picking and ripe for the harvest by bots... and they will be added, alongside yours, to spam lists, etc.

2nd, spammers these days have ways (a simple script can do this I think you mention it and it's called spoofing) to have any email inserted in the sent from... and sent to anyone they want, including all those found in not only spammers' lists but also those harvested from your CC fields. The familiar, recognizable email address on the sent from will make your friends trust the email... and get their machines compromised.

I have received emails from myself ~:\ with spam...

My email accounts have not been hacked into. It's a gamble... if your email has been around long enough, chances are, it will fall in the hands of spammers, even if you take all precautions, because many of your friends may not and will still expose your email on that CC field...

Maybe the best option (and I do not use it because still could not find something I like) is one of those automatic replies, that requires a one time confirmation --- proof that a human, not a bot, is on the other side of the line...

Know of any free PHO or CGI script that does this Leo?

What can also be done is create a "key" that tells your friends the email really is from you, for example, inserting in the subject line, before anything else, a signature of sorts... ex., {JaySafe2read}

Thanks for your time and all the wonderful work you do here.

Joao

The focus of this article is specifically when people can see that it's recipients in their address book that are being spammed. That's happening a lot. Yes, it's trivial for spammers to spoof a From: address, but those emails are typically random and not a blast to your entire address book at once. That's this article, by the way: Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?!

I understand the appeal of challenge/response systems as they're known, but I hate them. They make the sender of an email pay the price in time and inconvenience. Most of the time if I get such a challenge, I ignore it, as I'm sure many people do. You won't get spam, but you also won't get a lot of emails you want. Imagine having a newsletter of 100,000 subscribers and getting challenge response floods every time you send a newsletter. And that's this article: What's this confirmation request I got when I emailed someone?

And for completeness, here's my article on using BCC to reduce spam: How does using BCC help reduce spam?

06-Jan-2010

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Comment from Carol Duchesne on 2010-01-05

2010-01-06T01:55:37Z

My yahoo e-mail was hacked several months ago. When I contacted yahoo, they were no help at all. An e-mail was sent out to everyone in my address book about some fantastic sale. I'm sure the link in the e-mail contained a virus. Luckily, a copy went to my computer literate brother, who immediately recognized that I would never send out such a sloppy e-mail with poor grammar and misspelled words. I was able to contact everyone and alert them not to open the e-mail within minutes of the time it went out. My address book had disappeared, so I typed a hard copy into a word processing program, and when I send e-mails, I simply copy and post the addresses into the e-mail. It happened once again recently, but the only address in my address book was one for Bit Defender which is an anti-virus program. I have other e-mail accounts I use for important correspondence. They do not contain any address books.

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Comment from Mike Noonan on 2010-01-05

2010-01-05T23:53:47Z

I too was "hacked" in my Yahoo account. Another user e-mail address was added and my password was changed. It happened at 8:45 PM (I received confirmation msgs from Yahoo) and fortunately I caught it early the next morning.

Using Yahoo's secret responses to security questions I was able to regain my account and change the password.

However, my home computer address book was Not hacked but it was my Yahoo address book that was used (I haven't used it for years and forgot about it). I emptied my Yahoo address book.

I POP3 my mail to my computer (I don't believe in leaving any of my data in the cloud). So far my spam count has not risen but ...

Hope this helps. rgds, Mike

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Comment from Digital Artist on 2010-01-05

2010-01-05T19:35:32Z

I get spam almost daily from "myself". At least the "from" tag is that part of my email address that precedes the @. Not a problem, in fact it seems self-defeating to fake the source as the same as the destination.

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Comment from Mark Jacobs on 2009-12-31

2009-12-31T14:08:51Z

And if it is a virus, switching your email client might help.Like from outlooke express to thuneerbird. For example if a virus hijacks your Outlook express account and sends out spam and/or viruses to your contacts list. If this is the case simple switching to another email account won't work, you need to uninstall it or the virus will continue to exploit it in the background. Also, I'm not really sure if you can actually deinstall outlook express since as long as the address book is still there the viruses can still exploit it. You might have to export the address list to t-bird and delete all of your outlook express addresses manually.

PS don't use your real mother's maiden name or first pet etc. use a word as difficult to guess as your password and keep a copy safely hidden.

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