Using Your Email To Send Spam What exactly do they call those things?

[icemarle 0]

I was happily browsing the web so I decided to check my Yahoo! email. I got like 4 emails that were bounced back by Mail-Daemon. Apparently, I had tried to send this spam mail to some MSN groups!? It was bounced back to me because I had to be a member of that group to send emails. (Whew!) I was shocked and ran all the scans I could think of (Adware/Anti-virus) and deleted this Cydoor adware. I'm not sure that was what caused it, and I'm starting to freak out, because my Yahoo! email is one of my most advertised email. (I use it as my spam sucker and to register in things) I'm starting to get scared because I don't want it to get blacklisted by anything. I use a firewall, by the way... I'm not sure if this has been going on for a long time... I run my virus scan everyday (AVG) and my Anti-adware software (Spybot) occasionally. In fact, I found no viruses and only 1 adware. My firewall is always on and I've also run numerous tests on my firewall... Besides changing my email password, what could you guys recommend?

[Inspiron 0]

Having mails bounced back doesn't always mean that you've got problems on your computer. It could be that the recipient's email server either not working well, or the server cannot find the recipient's emaill address. There are several other elements that your email can be bounced back. Since you are using your Yahoo mail as a storage for all the spam mails, there could be a possibility that Yahoo servers block mass sending of advertisements or known-spam mails that were reported by other Yahoo users. Likewise, the recipient's server could be the one that blocked your mail as they were detected as spam, thus resulting in the email bounced back.MSN Group does require users with Microsoft Passport account, similar to your Hotmail account, to register to a particular group to obtain access to the information in the group. That could include emailing to the group's default email address. Hence resulting in the bounced email as well.You've forgotten the most important point. Besides scanning your computer for virus and spyware, you will also need to update them everyday. Without updates, it's pretty pointless to keep checking your computer without the software knowing of latest threats.

[icemarle 0]

Yup, they're all up to date. But the thing is... I never sent an email to those groups. I don't know anything about them at all! I was shocked to see an email I never remember sending bounced back to me and had a spam message in it! (Advertisements) The annoying thing is... It has my email address in the "From" form! So the question is, why would I be sending mass spam emails to random MSN groups? MSN groups won't allow you to mail a post in their group unless you're a member which I'm obviously not because I never even heard of those groups in the first place! I changed my password, by the way...

Edited May 8, 2006 by icemarle (see edit history)

[Inspiron 0]

So I guess we are expecting the same. There could be a spyware or some sort doing the emailing behind your back. Since you've detect a spyware, remove it. See if that happens again after removing the spyware.

 

Changing email password is one way to protect your inbox. However you cannot protect your email address because it's public. The spyware, or some guys who does the manual emailing, can use anonymous email scripts to send email using your email address. The anonymous email scripts are powerful in a way that you can even put in weird or stupid email address like, "suicider@terrorist.org", or "billgates@microsoft.com" etc in the from part of the mail. Hence, putting your email address in it is very much possible. If it's the spyware that does the emailing, the only way to stop is to remove it. If it's some guys trying to make fun of you, the only way to stop is to wait until they get tired of it.

 

However in future when you've got a new email address, protect the address by turning them into indirect characters such that only the browser is able to read. Scripts that are written by these scammers usually find email addresses in your HTML codes to use your email address. By turning your emailing address text into indirect characters, these scripts usually bypass your real email address, and therefore the scammers don't find you trouble.

 

Take a look at this site on how to change your email address into indirect characters. A more detailed explaination about this issue is also in the site.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[icemarle 0]

That adware was already exterminated by the way... I delete them right after the scans. They send spam to that address all the time... I know about them harvesting emails and spamming them, but the real scary thing is when you find out that you've been sending spam email using your address!? Evil!!! Anyway, I don't think it's the Cydoor adware that's been doing it, because it's mainly supposed to do pop-up advertisements and is bundled with some programs... How evil they are to use my email address to send spam mail! Urgh! Anyway, I don't think they had access to my inbox at all. I think they just spoofed my email address and it bounced back to my real one. :/ That doesn't make me breathe easier though.

[leeleelee 0]

Try not to have your email address on your site in HTML. try just making a gif that people can see but not the bots.

[brandice 0]

I had my hotmail address spoofed. The spam mails that people were getting weren't actually being sent by my account but the bounced back errors were being sent to me. It's possible for people to send email using any address that they want and they don't actually need access to your email account, changing your password really won't do any good.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[Lyon2 0]

if you treated the only adware you had, you don't have to worry, perhaps someone is using your email to send spam or something else.Perhaps it's an error from msn, perhaps someone that doesn't like you very much is using your email, there's too many possibilities.One thing is for sure, AVG is a good antivirus, but not that good if you know what i mean, so if you could get one better, that would be much better for you, maybe McAfee or Panda.Also watch out for SPAM Bots, they are always trying to get more email accounts, like yours, to use them for spam, perhaps it was what happened with you, in fact, that's more likely what happened.But don't worry, email accounts can be created again, if your email account get blacklisted, since you use it for not important things, you can always create another one!

[icemarle 0]

I used to have McAffee, but it didn't work for me anymore. It was becoming bothersome and starting-up was always a nightmare, since it took years. :/ I changed my password back to how it was. I'm going with the possibility that someone just spoofed my address. It's the most likely thing right now.

[Lyon2 0]

icemarle, Panda is the wisest decicion perhaps, but if you can't get McAfee VirusScan to work, that's because you have some *.dll files corrupt or not registered, i know that because it happened to me also, and i had to repair the registry, i had to read 2 ebooks about windows xp registry to fix things up, anyway, it was good for me because i learned tons of very usefull stuff, it's easier to format the disk then to repair it.I'm using McAfee VirusScan 10 (Retail) and it is very good, i used to use Panda titanium and also tryed Panda platinum but, McAfee is getting better every year, now, McAfee VirusScan or the Internet Security is even better then Norton VirusScan or Norton Internet Security, and that's just the pros reviews.AVG has a professional version, i have worked in a company as a informatics technician, here in portugal, where they used and are still using AVG Professional, i think it is the 7 professional version, it is very good, and it protects the entire LAN of computers of that same company, and it doesn't takes too much RAM (Random Access Memory), perhaps you should try it if the avg antivirus is working for you well.AVG pro has an antivirus, firewall, anti adware and spyware and much more great professional programs all in one.

Edited May 9, 2006 by Lyon2 (see edit history)

[icemarle 0]

I don't have problems running it. It's just that when I startup my computer, it slows everything down and I hate it. I don't think my computer is the issue anymore. I've heard from people who already experienced the same thing. Apparently it was some spammer who couldn't find anything to do and started spoofing emails he got and making spam be sent using their addresses.