Fraudulent use of my email address

[UKDEB]

I have had two 'failed delivery reports' for emails I didn't send. What do I need to do? Inform my service provider?

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Yes - we had to do this, Deb. I was accusing DH of sending weird and wonderful emails, but then when I went to print off a voucher for a tour, it kept coming up that a voucher to this email address had already been issued News to us, so we contacted AOL and haven't had any problems since. I can't remember all the gobbledygook they sent, but it did strike me as something that seems to happen to many people

 

[ADS]

Be very careful Debbie. I seem to recall a warning about message such as those being associated with a virus. They are sent from another machine and the idea is to trick you into opening it.

I will have a look arround and if i find anything else out i will post it here

Andy

 

[ADS]

Update

Just had a quick look arround and it "could" be the W32/Cone@MM virus or something similar. Please make sure that you do not open the mail. Delete it and check that you are up to date with your virus checker. Quite what enjoyment the sick people get out of try to screw uo machines i really do not know

Details of the virus at
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=101043

Debbie, if it is indeed a virus, note that it is not your machine with the virus but the machine that sent it to you. You will only get infected if you open the attachment as i understand it

 

[BONZO]

Deb,

There is a particular feature of e-mail worms such as Netsky, Mydoom, Sobig.f and Bagel which could cause some inconvenience.

Basically these worms have the potential to spoof an e-mail address - that means to make it look like it has originated from somebody / somewhere else. There will be other people who have had their machines infected by an e-mail worm.

If they have your address in their contacts list, the worm may try to send itself to that address AND send a mail elsewhere purporting to originate from your address.

If the message is then detected as a virus and bounced by the intended recipient's mail system, an error message will be generated and sent to your address, and you will not be sure of what is happening.

These worms victimize innocent bystanders by sending out its worm email with fake From addresses. The worm searches through the real infected person's hard drive, sifting through their files looking for email addresses. It then composes its email using the found addresses in both the From and To lines of the email.

Ironically, the one person whose name never seems to appear in the From field is the actual person who is infected and whose machine is spurting out this malicious spam worm.

In essence, those who never become infected by the worm are the real victims and often have to contend with other angry recipients who don't understand the forging technique and accuse them of being the sender. And if the worm's volume weren't enough, the innocent also receive the out of office replies, undeliverable messages, and virus alerts.

These return message notifications cause additional stress for everyone except the infected person who remains blissfully unaware of the scourge to which they are subjecting their friends, families, and colleagues.

I hope this helps.

 

[UKDEB]

Thanks, Shaun. I think.

So, is Andy right? Am I now infected because I opened it? And, if so, can I/do I need to do anything about it? I do have up-to-date Norton antivirus software.

 

[BONZO]

Deb,

Andy is correct - Opening an e-mail cannot effect a virus but opening an attachment can.

It's the other persons machine that's infected (whoever that may be).

If in doubt, run Norton to be on the safe side.