Computer Help Needed-Email Hijacked

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Randy_

Randy_

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2004
Messages
5,701
Location
Dallas suburb, Texas, USA.
I just started getting bounced emails from folks I never emailed. I am getting about 100 bounced emails per hour!!!:(:(:(

Apparently some company is sending spam and disguising it with my email address. All of the bounced emails are being returned to me and and clogging up my email account. Most of them are ending up in my spam folder but some are sneaking through into my normal folder.

Has anyone ever had this problem and is there an easy solution or do I need to abandon this email address and establish another one??

I have reported this to the appropriate places; but with spam being the problem it is, I don't expect them resolve the problem quickly.

Thanks.
 
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You could set up filter rules depending on what you are using for an email client to detect. Someone who knows how to read the actual headers can usually figure out a bit more about the source of the issue.

If you have access to read the full headers, if you'd like to PM me with details - I can look and see if I can tell you more. (If you don't know how to see full headers, email me what client you use).
 
Chances are your email account is being spoofed. That is when a spammer replaces their sending adress with your return to information. It doesn't take long before the blacklisters catch on and you will be free from the aggravation.
 
Originally posted by DCBluesman

Chances are your email account is being spoofed. That is when a spammer replaces their sending adress with your return to information. It doesn't take long before the blacklisters catch on and you will be free from the aggravation.
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That's what's happening. Just sit and wait it out.
 
I had this happen to me last summer and the spam blocker software thought they were valid since a return message may be perfectly valid. It was a big PITA since a valid email could easily get lost in the flood of emails and get deleted accidentily. When you skim through over 200 emails, a valid one is easily missed. It took about 3 or 4 months before they tapered off. So, if you can put up with the pain for a while, everything will eventually return to normal.
 
What happened to the good ol' days where people were hanged from a big oak tree for messing with the mail?


I had this happen before, and I got all sorts of P-O'ed email replies from people I had never heard of. Now, if I have ticked you off, feel free to email me whatever you wish, but MAN was it weird to be getting cussings every day from people I never knew for reasons I hadn't a clue why. I wound up closing that account out.
 
Originally posted by alphageek

You could set up filter rules depending on what you are using for an email client to detect. Someone who knows how to read the actual headers can usually figure out a bit more about the source of the issue.

If you have access to read the full headers, if you'd like to PM me with details - I can look and see if I can tell you more. (If you don't know how to see full headers, email me what client you use).
Click to expand...

Thanks, Dean. I use Gmail and they have a policy of not displaying IP addresses in their headers. This is what their web site says.

Protecting our users' privacy is something we take very seriously. Personal information, including someone's exact location, can be gathered from someone's IP address, so Google Mail does not reveal this information in outgoing mail headers. This prevents recipients from being able to track our users or uncover what may be potentially sensitive personal information.
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I'll go ahead and send you one anyway just to see if you can figure anything out; but I just noticed that there are no new emails in my junk folder since about 2 hours ago so maybe the attack is over??
 
Originally posted by maxwell_smart007

change the password? can't use your account if they cant' access it, right?
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Andrew: I tried that and it didn't seem to have any effect. I thinkl they are just using my email address and not actually using my email account.
 
Originally posted by DCBluesman

Chances are your email account is being spoofed. That is when a spammer replaces their sending adress with your return to information. It doesn't take long before the blacklisters catch on and you will be free from the aggravation.
Click to expand...

Lou & Ron: Thanks. I didn't know what to call it; but that appears to be exactly what is happening. All of the emails that I am getting are from thousands of postmasters of email providers who are telling me that messages I supposedly sent could not be delivered.

Blessedly, it does seem to have quit as of 17:53 this evening. Whether it was as the result of spam reports I made just before starting this thread or due to the actions of others, I can't say. Maybe they just went home for the weekend and I'll get another attack on Monday??

I sure would like to make a visit to the computer room of these guys with a baseball bat for about 15 minutes!!:( :(

BTW, the emails are almost entirely made up of little square boxes so i am guessing the original messages were in a foreign language. From one or two little clues, I think it was Chinese; but can't be sure.
 
Originally posted by pssherman

I had this happen to me last summer and the spam blocker software thought they were valid since a return message may be perfectly valid. It was a big PITA since a valid email could easily get lost in the flood of emails and get deleted accidentally. When you skim through over 200 emails, a valid one is easily missed. It took about 3 or 4 months before they tapered off. So, if you can put up with the pain for a while, everything will eventually return to normal.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the problem, Paul. I can push the delete button easily enough; but I'm worried about loosing that one email that notifies me I just won a million dollars!!:D

I'm a pretty patient person in cases like this so I will try to wait them out. But I will probably set up a new email account for IAP and one or two other places that I visit regularly. Fortunately, I have 3 or 4 four different email accounts so this spam thing is just an annoyance rather than a major problem. One account is for IAP and two other forums, one for family and close friends, one for general Internet communication and one for business. It won't be much of a effort to switch over to a new email account.
 
Originally posted by wdcav1952

Dang, Randy, I'm sorry. All I did was answer a Nigerian email in your name. I thought we could share the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. ;)
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200841924715_Rolling%20On%20The%20Floor%20Smiley.gif



William: What the heck are either of us going to do with half a million Nigerian dollars? Each one of us might be able to buy a couple of platinum Barons?
 
There is a good chance that someone you once sent an email to got a trojan on their computer. It sent a gazillion out as if it was from you and everyone else in that address book.
The folks that are bouncing back emails are actually creating more spam because they did not validate that the emails came from gmails public ip's.
If your computer slows to snail speed and the bounces continue, you might have the/a trojan. You would have the proud distinction of being part of a botnet.
Well, if you call being one of several million, distinct.
 
Randy..

I'm glad you're getting better. If I had known you were using gmail - you can use the spam and 'report phishing' buttons as needed - Their engine learns QUICK. Also as for the headers - you can show original on gmail (top right menu of message).. Thats what the 'geeks' need to try and trace in more detail whats happening.

If you are going to setup a new email account - I can help you setup your gmail account to get mail from other accounts. (Mine is a gathering point for several accounts). Then you can always create a 'throw away' address for using on the web. If it starts getting too much junk, you disconnect it from the gmail account and create a new one.
 
Just a short update for those that are interested. Several hours after I reported the spam had stopped, it started up againand I was getting about 50 messages per hour. Additionally, I started getting about 20 messages per hour in my inbox where, previously, most everything was being sorted to my junk folder. That lasted for about half a day and then spam to the inbox suddenly stopped although I was still getting a load in the junk folder. Today, the volume drastically dropped again. Whereas I was getting about 50 messages per hour, for the 24 period starting last night, I only got a "TOTAL" of 40 messages.

Some of this makes me think Gmail may be having some trouble with their spam filtering software?? Anyway, I'll just wait and see what happens. I did decide to set up another email account until the problem sorts itself out. I was very surprised to see that
IAP.TURNER [att] gmale.kom was still available!! [8D]
 
Well, I'm still getting a few messages....maybe a half dozen or so per day; but that is very manageable. Interesting thing is all of the messages are from server "postmasters" and all say essentially the same thing which is. ".....here is a message that we are bouncing; but could not deliver earlier....." and the original messages were all dated last weekend??

It looks like the problem may have passed; but is not totally extinguished just yet. I appreciate all of the comments. It was nice to understand what was happening.
 
Hi Randy,

This same thing happened on my IAP E-Mail address about two weeks ago. Massive amounts of bounced-email messages. I've seen this kind of thing before, where spammers will hijack other email addresses. My regular spam load of about 200/day went up to about 500/day for about four days, and since has tapered off and am now back down around 250/day. I use a spam program called Mailwasher to help simplify the process of sorting and eliminating the spam - usually only takes me a couple of minutes per day. Where you use gmail you probably have something like this built in. Hang in there, it will subside in a few days.

I have to admit I am intrigued by the idea of having master email accounts to gather the mails from other accounts. I may have to look into that.

Scott.
 
Scott: I hear Mailwasher is a pretty good program. I looked at it awhile ago; but it will not work with WIN 98 which I'm still running. Wish I had WIN 98SE. That seems to be a big breaking point as far as whether a program will work with your OS or not.

As to the master email thing, I decided pretty quick to set up a new Gmail account and link it to the corrupt account. For Gmail that works just fine as only the inbox is forwarded. The junk bin is left to rot. Whether other email services work the same way or not, I can't say.

It is a cool idea for folks who have multiple accounts, to link them all to one master account. You can monitor all of the accounts without actually having to access each one individually; but you do have to go back on some more or less regular basis to check for emails that have been erroneously flagged to the junk bin. I've got a Yahoo account and a Hotmail account that I think I will link to my new Gmail account and see if/how that works. They are accounts I use pretty regularly. Only problem is you have to remember to go back to your sub accounts to send/answer emails of you create exposure to your master account to spammers.

I only received one postmaster spam today so I think the problem is finally dead. Hooray!!!
 
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