Martin963 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 For a couple of years - up to about November last year - I was receiving two or three spam emails a day, mainly for sex products. Not really a huge problem in comparison to some, but annoying just the same.I gather that a big spam-generating set up was targetted by the American authorities in the winter and it has to be said that my spam emails stopped completely. A relief.However, today I have received an ad for a site selling Viagra, but what worries me is that the sender purports to be moi-meme, from the email address to which this message had come.Now maybe that's just a clever bit of software that disguises the true sender's address by substituting the destination address, but how would I know if it's actually my address that is generating spam and possibly sending it to my own address list? Because if it is I need to be taking action, and fast.I'm running AVG 8.00 and ZoneAlarm, and doing a scan on the main computer at this moment.Thanks for any guidance!M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 You could ask some people on your address list if they have received similar Spam purporting to be from you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tj Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 HiWould'nt worry too much, the only thing that cannot be manipulated with an email is the originating server and even that can be made difficult to track down.The obvious reason for something like this, is to make you do exactly what you did, open it, they want you to see the message, and therefore these misleading manipulations are generally not malicious.Put yourself in the place of someone trying to sell a product, thinking how can we get them to open it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Thanks - I'll make a few enquiries, at least SWMBO hasn't received that sort of message from me at her address!As you say, probably harmless but I value the advice of those who know more about this sort of thing than I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenniswitch Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I see a lot of spam with spoofed addresses (mine included) in the spam folders of my gmail accounts, but as they don't get downloaded to Outlook and none of my contacts have complained of getting spam from me, I just ignore them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzer Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 You may be interested to read the replies to my question "Is it possible for 2 people to have the same email address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I get lots of these at work Martin and have queried with our professional help desk. Although it looks to come from you, it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Thanks for all your further observations. I hadn't spotted the connection with the previous thread which is of course quasi-identical to my problem.Two more this afternoon, all the "unsubscribe/help/FAQ" links just go back to the viagra page!!There's a phone number which - given that we wrote our car off in a flood a couple of nights ago - I might just ring for the pleasure of hurling obscene abuse at some unsuspecting American! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I have had the same thing: receiving spam emails which apparently come from me....in a similar vein.In itself it's only irritating, but I once had an embarrassing moment when a similar email, apparently from me was received by an elderly lady I know in an association.Fortunately she tackled me about it, and I was able to assure her that it wasn't from me, but it could have caused trouble, especially if someone less able to cope, or more shy had been the recipient, or it had gone to somebody who wasn't so ready to believe my explanation, which isn't very convincing as I don't fully understand the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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