I had a weird experience this morning when I checked my email account for this blog.
For some reason, I rarely ever get a Spam email in my Yahoo Islagringo account. Today I had one. The weird thing was that it came from me and was addressed to me! How could somebody send me an email using my account name in the sender box?
Does this mean that Yahoo allowed somebody else to register my name for themselves? Is some business out there sending Spam emails to people using my name? If it gets reported to Yahoo, will they suspend or delete my email account? Since Yahoo offers no option to contact them with questions, I guess I'll never know.
One thing is for sure. If I get another email from myself I'll be switching my email account for sure. Has this happened to anybody else?
UPDATE: I knew my wonderful and knowledgeable readers would come through for me! Be sure to check out the comments section today.
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14 comments:
Wayne, I've had that happen off and on over the years -- as recently as a month ago in my AOL account where I get no spam. And it freaks me out! I'm eagerly awaiting the other comments because I'm sure someone will have the info.
Beck
No - very odd.
I've had that happen with AOL and I don't know how it does that but I believe there is something called spoofing. I don't understand it, but I think it's possible to make it look like it came from you or someone else. I once got blasted for sending a nasty email to someone that I never sent. It is a scary thing!
I often get enlargement offers from myself. Those are most common, although, pharmaceuticals pop up now and again as well.
LOL take or leave the pun, I'm going for more coffee :)
The only question I have, Wayne, is: Did you answer yourself? If you did, how did you then respond? This has all of the possibilities of a Möbius strip.
The only question I have, Wayne, is: Did you answer yourself? If you did, how did you then respond? This has all of the possibilities of a Möbius strip.
Your email account hasn't been compromised, they have faked the headers on the email to make it look like it came from the same address as the receiver. It's fairly common although I can't tell you how they do it. If you look at the full headers, it will show a different originating address.
My latest round of spam has been the same,looking like it's coming from me. My husband said he's been getting the same type of thing. Here are a couple articles explaining how it's done:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_spammers_send_email_that_looks_like_it_comes_from_me.html
and
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=309967&messageID=2866990
Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste the links. I forgot all the html I used to know!
How many margaritas did you have last night? Ha.........
Beck: it looks like we needn't freak out after all!
american mommy: I guess we have been lucky and it is not odd at all.
sue: that's exactly what I was afraid of!
mimi: best to ignore those offers. They don't work. err, so I've heard! LOL!
steve: it's not lke when you talk to yourself and then answer yourself too! I am unfailingly impressed by your vast knowledge base. I thought only knitters knew what a moebius strip was!
jonna: full headers?
nancy: thank you x 3873. you have eased my mind and saved me a lot of work in changing email accounts.
babs: anybody who knows me knows that I don't drink disgusting margaritas. I hate takillya. Now ask me how many cervesas I had and that is a different story!
Yep, Wayne. It happens all the time, usually with penile enlargement ads! Hah! So, don't open them out of curiosity! Hit delete and forgedaboudit! BTW, the code word for this log it is pubamp! What's that all about!
If you ever even see spam messages in your inbox you should switch to gmail, you will not regret it!
They have a great setup, and have tons of storage space.
( www.gmail.com )
I also have a Yahoo account and often get emails that appear to come from me. Even more distressing is when someone falsely uses my email address to send out spam and then I get hundreds of email messages saying that the mail was spam or it could not be delivered.
I talked at length with Yahoo about this and they say that since the spam did not really originate from a Yahoo account holder they can't do anything. The only solution is to change your email address. And what a pain that is...especially if your email address is connected to a personal website hosted by Yahoo as mine is.
One way that I have noticed an improvement in the situation is to take my email address off of all of my signature lines when I post on forums so it doesn't get collected by the spammers. Kathe
Wayne - I've been getting spam comments in the last week for the first time. Very annoying, but I'm glad I get to 86 'em.
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