Some help with stolen Email address

[leon]

Hi guys

First we have had issues with Microsoft and its verification rubbish, and now we, Alice and I have had emails sent out using our email address by a third party, who we don't know obviously.

So what is our best plan of attack please.

Leon

[sheeny (Al)]

At least change your email passwords ASAP. If they have hacked your email account, they know your email passwords and can change them at will, so get in first.

It is more likely that they simply have your email address and are using it as a return address for spam. I'm not sure what you can do about that. Hopefully other people will have some ideas.

Al.

[leon]

Thanks Al, will take your advice.

Leon

[ZeroID (Brent)]

It's called 'spoofing' Leon. Your email address has been harvested probably from some outside mail list, email in passing, dist list or website logon. I'd suggest change your email password just for good measure as Al says.
Beyond that little you can do. Just delete any spam replies tha pop up. Whatever you do don't click on any links etc in them.

[leon]

Thanks Guys, we have done what you have suggested and can only wait an see what happens next.

Leon

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Are we sure this is really you Leon? Maybe someone has stolen more than your email address

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Well it looks like him.

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Save the addresses and close the account. Do a mail-out from a NEW account to your contacts in the address book telling them the new address.
Read today that a Russian group has scooped millions of passwords recently but we are not allowed to know from which companies they got them. Apparently it will alert hackers that the companoes are vulnerable, but screw everyone else seems to be the motto.
U may just end up having to deal with spam for a few months if u keep the current address and it will taper off, and u should be able to determine the nature of the thieves from the content of the emails. Maybe get a chance to report them.
However it goes, good luck with it.
Trev

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Speaking of spam, my usual 10 or so a day has been more like 100 for the last week. SpamCop appear to have given up on some of the hosting providers as they are sending all those reports to /dev/null

[leon]

Yea, it is me Trevor, see the whiskers, and thanks guys we have done all we can for the moment, hopefully it will cease soon.

Leon

[multiweb (Marc)]

Hi Leon, just saw that thread. Unfortunately you can't do much about this. Most of the time it's not that your account has been hacked or anything when people are using your email address in the 'from' field.

There are two flavours out there.

1_ Mail spoofing. You get the occasional email from leon@domain.com (your email address). That's what your mail client says but if you check the mail header you'll see that the email doesn't even come from you. To stop this there is a system that does a very 'relaxed' check called a SPF record. It's a line of text in the zone file of your domain with the web host. But it is not very effective.

2_ Back scattering. This one is a real pain. You get 100s of bounced emails coming from various domains. It's not your fault either. It comes from compromised SMTP servers or unsecured web forms. Automated bots use leon@domain.com in the fields then spam the web. The messages that are undeliverable bounce back to leon@domain.com and you get all the failed delivery notices.

[leon]

Thanks Marc, we hope it will just go away one day, however we have done all we can in changing security passwords and info, so one can only hope.

Leon