Unauthorized use of my email address

[attorneysdca]

I am new to this but received over 50 emails one morning telling me that mail I had sent was undeliverable. Investigation showed that this spam mail was apparently sent using my business email address and from at least 50 different email accounts from various places around the world. I got a lot of the IP addresses in the bounce back emails and traced them to Istanbul; Amsterdam; London; Germany and the USA.

I know that anyone can make an email look like it's coming from your email address, but the scary thing about this was the sheer volume of different users, from different places around the world, using my address apparently all at the same time. Does anyone know how this can occur and how dangerous it is when it happens???

Any info will be appreciated.

[rconner]

Does anyone know how this can occur and how dangerous it is when it happens???

This is a very common question -- see this wiki entry for more info.

-- rick

[Miss Betsy]

To quote another frequent poster:

"spam" is a trademark of Hormel Corporation, so please do not use it here to refer to unsolicited e-mail (spam). Please see spam and the Internet , especially the third paragraph. Thanks!

It is not dangerous. Almost everyone with the power to interfere with your email recognizes that it is a common forgery (those who don't are not likely to be the internet service providers for your correspondents).

Miss Betsy

[attorneysdca]

This is a very common question -- see this wiki entry for more info.

Thanx Rick. That wiki link was VERY helpful. The only question I have, after reading that entire link, is how to 50 different people start using my email address all at the same time??? The bounce back emails showed all different IP addresses, different email hosts and even different countries. The link seemed to explain how "a spammer" could use my address but how do 50 different spammers from around the world start using it simultaneously???

[Miss Betsy]

The spammer forged your email address into his spam which was sent to thousands of addresses. Fortunately for you, only 50 server administrators accepted the email and then sent a non-delivery message. I saw somewhere else that someone woke up to 200 non-delivery messages this morning! There have been people who have their own servers waking up to thousands.

Before server administrators realized that sending an email to the return path made them 'accessory' spammers, it was common practice and very useful. I am not a server admin, but I gather that the hardware and software necessary to filter email before acceptance is expensive. It also means that some good email will be rejected because blocklists are based on IP address, not email addresses. Server admins don't like explaining to end users like you and me why because an end user who loses an email tends to be irate and not in a 'learning' mode. I still couldn't run an email server, but I think I have a concept of how it works just as I do understand the concepts of a piston engine even though I couldn't repair my car. After many, many questions (and very patient server admins), I did learn the concept of how email is accepted.

Some server admins still have not found out that by accepting emails instead of rejecting them at the server level, they have to filter the email for spam before using any automatic replies such as non-delivery notices and out of office replies so that spam is not automatically responded to.

If you report your deluge via spamcop, some server admins may be given the 'wake-up' call.

HTH,

Miss Betsy

[rconner]

Thanx Rick. That wiki link was VERY helpful. The only question I have, after reading that entire link, is how to 50 different people start using my email address all at the same time??? The bounce back emails showed all different IP addresses, different email hosts and even different countries. The link seemed to explain how "a spammer" could use my address but how do 50 different spammers from around the world start using it simultaneously???

Many spammers now send their traffic through "botnets" of subverted computers located all over the world. Spams from a single run can thus appear to be coming from many different IP addresses in different countries -- the spammer operates them all via remote control and uses them to shield his mail operations. Here's another wiki link for you to read.

-- rick

[attorneysdca]

Rick,

What can I say??? That second wiki link answered all of my follow-up questions. AND I am now nowhere near as worried as I was when I got that slew of bounce back emails. I really thought the sh** had hit the fan and I was going to get thousands more as the days went by, but like wiki said, it appears it was just a single bot run and the bounce back mails have now stopped. And, thanx to you, I have some idea of what actually happened.

I guess I do have ONE more question. Several people have said I should "report the deluge via spamcop" so my last question is how do I do that, exactly??? I have over 60 emails and 30 or more of those have at least two attachments so forwarding all of them, one by one to spamcop, seems like a lot of work. Is there some way to bulk forward all of the emails (with attachments) at one time?

Don

[Wazoo]

I guess I do have ONE more question. Several people have said I should "report the deluge via spamcop" so my last question is how do I do that, exactly??? I have over 60 emails and 30 or more of those have at least two attachments so forwarding all of them, one by one to spamcop, seems like a lot of work. Is there some way to bulk forward all of the emails (with attachments) at one time?

I don't see how anyone can answer that question specifically, as you've not identified the tools in use, just to pick one specific item. In general, that kind of answer would be found in the SpamCop FAQ as found here and in a number of previous/existing Topics found in the Reporting Help Forum section.