Someone using my e-mail address (1 Viewer)

ehrodz · Sep 5, 2007

I received an e-mail from "Mail Delivery System" <MAILER-DAEMON at mandy.eunet.fi> saying that an e-mail I supposedly sent someone I never heard of (ehrnrooth at tekla.com) offering Viagra Soft Tabs through a website(ogamjng.cn) could not be delivered to one or more recipients.

I never sent such an email even though my e-mail address was used.

Does anyone know what is going on here? Is there anything I can do about someone using my e-mail address like this? Thanks.

jedku · Sep 5, 2007

Most likely, this is a type of spam advert. It is likely that no email was sent from your account. I get these myself on all my accounts. Just ignore it and do not reply or give them any information. Even just a reply lets the computer that sent it know that your email address has a live person on the end of it and it will direct more spam to you from that simple datum. This is just automated spam and data collection about which email addresses are live and worth directing more spam at. Just delete it and move on.

There is a small chance you have a virus using your account to spam other accounts, but I doubt it.

David Smith · Sep 5, 2007

I hope I am wrong but once these people get your e-mail address they seem to pass/sell it on. I am inundated with offers of viagra or penis enlargement (what's wrong with 20mm?). Today I had 248 e-mails, most of them offerring these 2 products. I have tried increasing the barriers etc. but so far it just gets worse. I am changing my email address soon so hopefully it will stop.

Malop · Sep 5, 2007

It's a technique called SMTP spoofing. It's a very common practice by spammers to try and get mail through spam filters.

The best way to describe it is to compare sending an e-mail to sending a letter. You put a letter in the envelope and post it to someone, just because the letter is signed John Smith with his home address on doesn't mean he sent it, it could have been forged.

Unfortunately with e-mail it's very easy to set a program up to randomly generate e-mail addresses at the rate of about 1,000 per second and send e-mails from them at a similar rate.

Ignore it and also ignore any abusive e-mails you may get from people who think they sent you spam, you didn't. Just make sure your anti-virus is up to date.

Henry B · Sep 5, 2007

Malop said:
It's a technique called SMTP spoofing. It's a very common practice by spammers to try and get mail through spam filters.

The best way to describe it is to compare sending an e-mail to sending a letter. You put a letter in the envelope and post it to someone, just because the letter is signed John Smith with his home address on doesn't mean he sent it, it could have been forged.

Unfortunately with e-mail it's very easy to set a program up to randomly generate e-mail addresses at the rate of about 1,000 per second and send e-mails from them at a similar rate.

Ignore it and also ignore any abusive e-mails you may get from people who think they sent you spam, you didn't. Just make sure your anti-virus is up to date.

Welcome to Birdforum.B

B

Mad_BMS · Sep 5, 2007

David Smith said:
I am changing my email address soon so hopefully it will stop.

Once they have you its seems to be the only way. I certainly plummeted from 50-100 a day to none on changing address. Now very careful in issuing it. I think ISP's can be at fault, though indeed my last one was banned by other ISPs for allowing to much spam through.

iraqbabbler · Sep 6, 2007

spam and spyware

Agree with the above-mentioned :t:

Moreover, I think you should do a sweep for any malware (viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware .. etc) .. There are free(for personal use) anti-malware programs out there as well as commercial ones ..

Of the free ones, I would recommend :

- Spybot Search and destroy
- Lavasoft Adaware
- Hijackthis

johnnybike · Sep 6, 2007

I use Thunderbird as a mail client and that does quite an effective job of identifying junk mail and moving it to a seperate folder. I then check it manually before emptying the folder.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/thunderbird/

ehrodz · Sep 8, 2007

ehrodz said:
I received an e-mail from "Mail Delivery System" <MAILER-DAEMON at mandy.eunet.fi> saying that an e-mail I supposedly sent someone I never heard of (ehrnrooth at tekla.com) offering Viagra Soft Tabs through a website(ogamjng.cn) could not be delivered to one or more recipients.

I never sent such an email even though my e-mail address was used.

Does anyone know what is going on here? Is there anything I can do about someone using my e-mail address like this? Thanks.

This is a follow- up to my original post: Four days after the above incident I received an e-mail supposedly from myself( using my yahoo.com e-mail address) trying to sell me something. Does this necessarily mean that someone has stolen the password to my e-mail account? Thanks. By the way I have the following safeguards in my PC: Zone Alarm firewall, Windows anti virus/ anti spyware, Spybot search and destroy, Spyware blaster and Ad-Adware SE.

Mary Evelyn · Sep 8, 2007

I have a great junk box which i don't even have to enter and it clears every 5 days.

If you are concerned get another new e-mail ad and let all your safe contacts know but no body else.I have one which doesn't get any junk at all.

On one of my e-mail ads. i complained to a radio station regarding a presenter. Never had any junk but suddenly i got so many daily viagra and penis enlargement e-mails and after a while i thought a change of e-mail sounded good.They didn't bother me that much anyway as i didn't open them,just sent them to junk.I bet they are still sending them there now.

I think it is always good to have an e-mail ad.for safe users only and another for forums etc.which can be changed to suit.

Colin · Sep 13, 2007

I get this type of junk email most days and they are directed straight into my deleted box. However, in the last two days, 12th and 13th Sept I have suddenly got many more useless emails, usually Mail Delivery System emails. This is a vast increase over literally the last two days for a few 10s of them to several thousand per day. Has anyone else noticed or getting this?

Birdingben · Sep 14, 2007

Hi Colin

I'm afraid to warn you that last summer I was similarly 'afflicted' by this 'phenomena' for several weeks, & was receiving several hundred 'Mail Undelivered' & such like in my inbox.
Thankfully,the spammer(s) have moved on to other victims,using their E-Mail addresses to peddle their dubious wares!
What you are probably receiving is the rejects from Spam that is sent using your address (domain name & perhaps User name) to Mailboxes that no longer exist or have been incorrectly addressed by the Spammer.

There is very little you can do about it,other than set up Mailbox filters to divert such messages into your 'deleted' box.

This is a recent entry on the excellent 'Castle Cops' website,relating to the same problem:

http://www.castlecops.com/postlite198982-mail+undelivered.html

It refers to tweaking the software,Mailwasher,but gives you some pointers & the reassurance that you are not alone.
A bit more delving on the same site will turn up other people's posts that have suffered this problem

A Google search on 'Joe job' ,an American term for the same problem will give you more insight.
Similarly,Google one of the returned message titles,such as 'Mail Undelivered' will lead you to other Forums where you may get some help.

Good Luck!!

Colin · Sep 14, 2007

Ben,
Thank you so much for the information. I had already considered adding a filter to direct such emails straight to my deleted box. That would be a big help but at the moment there is still the problem of the puter taking ages to 'receive' all of these messages. I might change my email address. The current one has been going for about 7 years so I have had good mileage out of it. Bit of a pain to tell all my friends of a new one but it will probably be the best option soon. Thanks again.

Malop · Sep 17, 2007

Do you have web access to your e-mail?

Your ISP may have a website you can logon to to view your e-mail. If so before downloading to your computer you can view the website and delete any that are obviously spam (sorting by subject for example).

A bit of a pain but better than changing your e-mail address.

Colin · Sep 17, 2007

Hi Malop,
No, I haven't got that access but I have put more rules in place and the problem in my inbox is nowhere near as bad as it was. It takes time for the puter to receive all of the mails but I let that go on in the background and do other things and then check my emails (inbox only now) later. Thanks for the advice.

Catherine3678 · Sep 17, 2007

Quite some time ago I was having a similar problem. In time it stopped. What I did was "even if" it appeared to come from me I flagged them as spam since the ISP knows better than we do exactly where these things are coming from (obviously we cannot block our own addresses!). This did result in my having to fill out a few more of those spam detection boxes in order to send mail while they sorted it out at their end. This was temporary.

The other "major" thing to check is in your "on the computer" mailing programs. Check all the places wherein "your" email address(es) is(are) listed and make sure none others have been added. If you find anything you didn't add in there, delete them. There was a "virus" thingie going around wherein it put its own address into the "on the computer" mailing programs (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) and then used those programs to send out email from the infected computers. IF you find one of those it would be nice to also notify everybody in your email address book to check their systems because first thing it'll try to do is install itself in their computer mailing systems as well.

If your computer is not part of a network; also check that it is not set up to receive "remote assistance" etc.

Do not respond to any spam letters; just delete them and/or report them as spam or to the authorities if need be. They are computer generated to zillions of addresses; when you click reply you are notifying their computer that your address is "alive" and then "whamo" tons more spam!

Vectis Birder · Sep 18, 2007

ehrodz said:
I received an e-mail from "Mail Delivery System" <MAILER-DAEMON at mandy.eunet.fi> saying that an e-mail I supposedly sent someone I never heard of (ehrnrooth at tekla.com) offering Viagra Soft Tabs through a website(ogamjng.cn) could not be delivered to one or more recipients.

I never sent such an email even though my e-mail address was used.

Does anyone know what is going on here? Is there anything I can do about someone using my e-mail address like this? Thanks.

I used to get those now and again and I always thought it a bit odd as I'd never sent such an email in the first place. I dismissed it as spam. Sometimes when clearing out my bulk (spam) folder (I look in it for legitimate emails that sometimes get trapped there) I find spams from....my own email address!!

Someone using my e-mail address (1 Viewer)

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