"Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

[generator12]

At least five times in the last ten years I've had episodes during which I received email responses from a server that my message couldn't be delivered for one reason or another (invalid address, recipient's ISP not responding, etc.) regarding messages I never sent - to recipients I never knew! Once I was accused of sending porn materials to an acquaintance.

Of course I do a virus scan and check for malware whenever this occurs, but haven't always found either. So I assume that someone in my email circle is infected and his/her address list has been hijacked. The latest return was a Russian email address.

Yeah, I know it's an imperfect world, but hackers have cost me almost a thousand dollars over the years in computer service and software replacement. The people who do this hi-jacking appear to be above the law, as I very seldom see anything in the news about their being tracked down and punished.

If it were up to me, every one caught doing this stuff would be sentenced to slide down a twenty foot razor blade into a bucket of rubbing alcohol.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

Which email provider are you using?

 

[generator12]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

Which email provider are you using?

Time Warner's Road Runner.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

I asked because I had this happen to me, but it was another provider. The way I fixed it and it did fix it, was to first change my password and second unticked the box to stay logged on. It took both to kill the spamming. I figured that some spammer cracked my old password and by not staying logged on, they needed the new password. I don't know how they do it, but none of their junk was in my sent folder. But I got tons of undeliverable messages It worked for me, can't hurt to try.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

Normally what is happening, is someone is spoofing your email address, spammers do this all the, it became quite common about 8 years ago. What they do is send thousands of spams out using your email address as the from address, so when they biunce they come back to you. You can actually find out where it came by looking at the header which will show what IP address it originated from. That is way more common than actually being hacked.

 

[britisher]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

Normally what is happening, is someone is spoofing your email address, spammers do this all the, it became quite common about 8 years ago. What they do is send thousands of spams out using your email address as the from address, so when they biunce they come back to you. You can actually find out where it came by looking at the header which will show what IP address it originated from. That is way more common than actually being hacked.

They say that over 70% of all internet/email traffic is spam. So I wonder what the NSA is spending all its time reading???:facepalm:

 

[Volphin]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

I hate spammers. But geez, it must work or they wouldn't keep doing it!

 

[generator12]

Re: "Undeliverable Message" that I didn't send...

Volphin, you may be right, but I'm sure not convinced. Cold sales calls at supper time, robocalls that get you out of bed in the morning, spam that fills your in-box and wastes time and resources, even the more obnoxious auto dealer ads on radio and TV - I personally just can't believe that these really work. The public would have to be absolutely full of dunces if these atrocities actually influenced people to buy a product or service, especially if you didn't actually have a need when exposed to them.

Consider the thirty-second disclaimer, spoken so fast that it's impossible to actually understand it, which describes all the things that can go wrong if you use the product. ("...And if you feel sudden death coming on, call your doctor immediately...!")

I'm inclined to believe that these types of intrusions exist because the people who promulgate them are truly the stupid ones. It seems to me that they just don't know any other way and don't have the patience or self-discipline to do a study on the (in)effectiveness of this stuff.