Spam e-mails being sent from my Hotmail account to all my contacts

[12juline]

HELP!! E-mail messages has been sent out from my Hotmail account without me
having to do with it. This is approx the 3rd or 4th time that it happened and
I am getting concerned about the security of my account. I am so embarrassed
to all my contacts because they are receiving e-mails which are actually not
from me. They are usually messages with a link to a website selling
electronic goods and what-have-you's!! It’s a hotmail.com account but which I
usually access via the web or by something that looks like Outlook Express. I
am worried that my hotmail account has been hacked! What should I do to stop
this from happening again??? Please help. Please reply ASAP!

 

[Charlie Tame]

It is common for spammers to use someone else's email address so it does
not necessarily mean that your account has been "Hacked', although you
could consider changing the password. Often they pick up an email
address for a newsgroup such as this one or they get them from one
careless contact who has "Forwarded" something like a joke to 37 people
and left their email addresses in there. It gets on the net and you've
more or less had it from that point on because there is not much anyone
can do to stop the abuse once it starts.

It is possible to tell roughly where an email came from by reading the
"Headers", the part you don't normally see. DO any of your friends who
get these emails know how to do that?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

You can't stop a spammer from using your email address as his 'From'
address. Luckily, this will be a short-lived problem because the spammer
will quickly change to a different 'From' address.
To prevent this from happening you'd have to make sure your actual
email address is never revealed in a public forum of any kind. If you
must post in a public forum, use a fake or throw-away email address.

 

[slk759]

This can be a scary situation for sure. Spammers typically just set their
From address to yours that they've obtained from almost anywhere, so the
mail is not necessarily using your actual account (hacked), just your
address is being used / displayed. All you can do is get the header
information and forward that to one of the SPAM watchdogs at the FCC, FBI or
wherever (some ISPs have a reporting mechanism), but they need the whole
email with the headers. Generally you can see the header if you right click
the email, go to Properties, and review the Details. Their IP address
(that's the address that looks like 123.123.123.123) will be theirs and
they've just put your "English" address on the mail.

There isn't really anything you can do and the watchdog groups get so many
of these that you shouldn't expect too much from them. But rest assured
this has happened to very many people so there is no need to feel
embarrassed.

Just open up another email address and send it to all of your contacts with
a note that your address has been compromised and you have a new one. Maybe
send it a couple of times to make sure they get it. Then shut down the
other account with your ISP.

And try to be safe with your new address - you might consider opening up a
special email address at one of the "free" places (mail.com or wherever) to
use specifically anywhere you might be accessing a SPAM generating site. If
you are not competent of who you are doing business with, give them this
special address until your relationship is "secure" enough to trust them
with your "real" address. Only give your real address to your relatives,
closest friends, and major companies with whom you do business.

 

[smlunatick]

HELP!! E-mail messages has been sent out from my Hotmail account without me
having to do with it. This is approx the 3rd or 4th time that it happenedand
I am getting concerned about the security of my account. I am so embarrassed
to all my contacts because they are receiving e-mails which are actually not
from me. They are usually messages with a link to a website selling
electronic goods and what-have-you's!! It’s a hotmail.com account but which I
usually access via the web or by something that looks like Outlook Express. I
am worried that my hotmail account has been hacked! What should I do to stop
this from happening again??? Please help. Please reply ASAP!

Besides all the recommendations, change the account's password!!
There is a new "scheme" where Hotmail / MSN / Live email accounts are
"hijacked" by someome. Then, they request money from your contacts
stating that "you" are stuck somewhere, usually "overseas," and you
need emergency money.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

If your contacts are receiving messages that appear to be from you then that
is a problem different from the one most replies here are saying. When you
say contacts, do you mean the contacts in your computer or do you mean the
contacts online in your Hotmail account?

You might get clues by looking at the headers in the messages that your
contacts receive, but it is a little complicated to explain how to do that.