# Receiving spam from myself



## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

I recently reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything. I also ran all the Vista updates, etc. Somewhere along the way I received messages, apparently from Microsoft, asking me to check a box and enter my mail address if I wanted to be notified of further updates (or something like that). Not long afterwards I received an email, again purporting to come from Microsoft, which advertised various types of Viagra. Rather belatedly I realised that this was nothing to do with that organisation. I then compunded my original error by clicking Unsubscribe on the message.

As a result I now receive lots of messages from my own email address offering all sorts of rubbish. Can I put a stop to this without changing my address?


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Hummm ... No expert help yet ?? .... Till an expert checks in ..

Could be coming from you ... (you got some nastyware)
Could be coming from someone who has your Email address in their address book ... (they got some nastyware)
Could be coming from someone who is spoofing the sent address... (I'm guessing this is the case)

If it were me .. I'd send myself an Email.
Then I'd check the properties of the Emails ... And see if I could determine the IP address of the spam (if different) than yours.

You might be able to Block Emails coming from yourself ... but they may not be.

If you can determine the IP address of the sender .. you might be able to report them.

EDIT ... If you check back and include any Properties info ... Be careful and do not include your Email address here.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

While waiting .. Here's a trick ..
Add these addresses to your address book

[email protected]
[email protected] ... (see the zero not the O)
[email protected]

Now .. If your computer tries to send an Email to one of these .. AND .. it uses your Email address as the Sender ...
You will get an Email that it bounced.

But Normally, If you have Nastyware .. It will not use your Email address as the sender.

This was a trick that our Computer Club President told us about.
But, About 2 months ago .. Comcast shut him down because he was sending spam 

It's a long shot .. But it will tell you if your sending spam as yourself.


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## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks, I will try everything you suggest. A friend of mine has suggested that I contact my ISP to find out how to change my modem ID and password which he says will change my IP address and prevent hackers from accessing it. What do you think?

I checked the properties of one of the spam messages and this is what I got:

Return-Path: <_my address_.com.au>
Received: from static-153-8-225-77.ipcom.comunitel.net (static-153-8-225-77.ipcom.comunitel.net [77.225.8.153] (may be forged))
by mail16.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id mAADg36q012634
for <_my address_.com.au>; Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:42:10 +1100
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:42:10 +1100
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: <_my address_.com.au>
Subject: What can be done with your wife?
From: <_my address_.com.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Importance: High
Content-Type: text/html

I have changed my address for safety's sake. the "may be forged" is in the message (not my addition).


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

I'm in over my head here .. Where's the experts ??
Do you know you can do a "whois" on the ip address ?? there are several "whois" .. here's one
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?ip=77.225.8.153
sometimes there's an abuse address where you can report spam ... etc ...

That Amsterdam scares me ... I've seen stuff from there before ...
But they were attempts to hack me .. this is another subject.
Do you have a good Firewall ?? ... And are you hiding behind a router.

If this is garden variety Spam .. I don't think your ISP can help.
The horse is already out (your email address) .. It might be too late to lock the gate.

How many Email addresses does your ISP allow ??
I have 5 Email addresses ...
One for primary friends ...
One in reserve for primary friends ... That I can switch to if/when needed.
One anonymous addresses for giving out when I suspect it may be spammed ..
One address for a computer club work
And one I use for TSG here.
For example .. If my TSG address picks up spam .. I can change it quickly and not have to inform everyone.
If the Computer club address picks up spam ... It has a limited audience that I can change .. and I might have a good idea where it's coming from.
But these are all preventative measures.

This sounds like this is garden variety spam .. but it might be a good idea to start looking in your computer for a virus.

And thinking how to handle it the next time.


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## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks Noyb. A friend suggested that I contact my ISP and change my modem address and password, which I have just done. I will now wait and see if the spam stops.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Please let me know ... This'll be interesting.

I think the second line in you first post .. tells the story .. you gave out your address to a fake M$ site.

I cant say loud enough .. Have an anonymous address (or two) for giving out when you need an address but it might be spammed.
I never use my primary address for purposes like this.
This has saved me many times .. I just change it.

If all the spam is coming from one sender .. You can tell OE to block the sender.
But this in not normally the case. The spammers usually keep changing the fake senders address .. Or they share your address with all their buddies.

I mentioned that I have two addresses set up for Primary friends.
My plan would be to not cancel the old address .. but inform everyone of the New Address - if/when I need to switch.
Then I could set OE to NOT automatically read the old address .. but manually check it occasionally to see if someone didnt get the change of address message.

In the past  Ive seen some spam just go way .. like they got tired of trying to get me to bite.
You might be so lucky.

Many times .. Like when I try to download a free program .. They require an Email address.
Do you think I give them an address that even works ??
Itll be something like  [email protected]

I'll bet this topic is giving the spam bots a problem


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Yes lots of spam have fake address and this Free Email Address Verifier will tell you.
http://verify-email.org/

At another forum we get new members signing up all the time and I can tell most are spammers from where the IP address is from but I check out the IP address and the email address and most email address are bad.
Then I delete the accounts so they can not get into the site because we have to OK each.


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## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

Heewee, I checked on the verify-email site but because I am the sender of the spam the sender address (mine) was shown as OK.

Changing my Mail password had no effect. I have now blocked myself as a sender.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Well yea your own address would check out OK and it's a good one. That is why your getting the spam. But that is good to use other ways.

Changing password will not help either because that does not effect any email someone sends you.

Get Mailwasher
http://www.mailwasher.net/
You then check your email at the server and mark the spam and delete or bonuce the spam at the server so you never have to download it. Make a friends list for good email. 
Bounce email going back to sender and it's shows that your address is not anygood. But it can take a long time to get off a spam list and may not always work but I would try it.

Blocking yourself as sender means what? You can not email to your self at your own address? If that is so your get no email so may as well get a new address. 
Your just need to let all who has your address know your new good address. 
Not just people in your address book but also forums and other places that had the address. Your have to put the change of address in the profile at any forum so if you can't login and you click the link they will send you the user name and password but send it to the email address you have in the profile so your want to check all places like that if it is using the address your be changing.


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## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

Blocking myself doesn't mean that I don't get any email. What happens is that if an email is sent to me from my own address (i.e. the spam I have been getting) Mail informs me that it has arrived and been sent to the Junk folder.

I received the last such spam more than 24 hours ago, so perhaps it has come to an end. I'll wait a couple of days and, if I haven't received any more spam, I'll unblock myself.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Right .. blocking it doesn't mean you don't get it ... 
Just means OE will send it to the Deleted folder.

I've seen some spam go away after awhile ... but it may take a few months or more.
Why unblock it ??? ... Are you in the habit of Emailing yourself 

I'd be happy that they were using an address I could block.
They could do a lot worse


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## mrss (Jun 13, 2007)

I would not worry much about it. The spammer probably faked the header so that it looked like you sent the email. This is done to get you to open the email. Only you will get that email if that's true. 

The email machines are easily tricked like that. I get email supposedly from myself. I get email addressed to someone else (same domain) and it still winds up in my inbox. 

You will know when they are really using your name as the sender. Many e-mails in mass mailings bounce, and there's always someone with an automated out-of-office responder. When you start getting a few messages from some postmaster saying the email bounced, or an out-of-office response, then you know your address is being spoofed. 

All this of course, is separate from the case where a virus is resident in your PC and actually sending out the emails under your name.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

OK your still get the email from you. I would still get mailwasher so that you only download good email. I don't care if it goes to the junk or spam folder because it only does that if you download so why even download the spam in the first place.

I keep my ISP email address really safe and made a hard to guess user name with numbers in it that is not used any place else.
Not like I did years ago where hewee was also use as the email user name. Well posting at forums I learned of spam bots and your guessed it they pick up all the names people use on forums and hit all the mail servers with it so your get spam.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Hey Cullism
What's the latest ???
You still getting the Spam ??


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## jonuck (Oct 17, 2001)

cullism said:


> Heewee, I checked on the verify-email site but because I am the sender of the spam the sender address (mine) was shown as OK.
> 
> Changing my Mail password had no effect. I have now blocked myself as a sender.


Have a similar problem and have posted on a parallel thread with this concern and with noyb's help have been directed to this thread .......... would welcome any update as to what has been achieved to combat this.....................


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## cullism (Nov 1, 2007)

At the time of my last post I had blocked myself as a sender. This meant that any spam I received from myself would result in a window popping up warning me that I had received mail from a blocked sender. After doing this I received only one such warning. I haven't received any spam from myself for quite a long time now, so I assume the attack is over.


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## jonuck (Oct 17, 2001)

cullism said:


> At the time of my last post I had blocked myself as a sender. This meant that any spam I received from myself would result in a window popping up warning me that I had received mail from a blocked sender. After doing this I received only one such warning. I haven't received any spam from myself for quite a long time now, so I assume the attack is over.


Many thanks for response cullism, glad to hear that you have probably succeeded in ridding yourself of this scourge ....... I use Mailwasher and although this utility was mentioned in the thread you didn't indicate what blocking method you used.......................


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