Yet more email problems

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

OK, so a while ago I had problems with people hacking my account. I changed my security question and those problems seemed to go away.

But in the past few days, I've been getting notifications that emails I've sent have been bouncing or have been caught by spam filters--but the problem is that I never sent any of them! They're all spam, and to people I've never heard of.

Could this be related? Or is that something that's going around? Either way, what can I do?

 

[XD375]

Maybe it's a new type of spambot, one that disguises itself as a different e-mail through extensive coding, so naturally, it would get bounced back to the e-mail that it had disguised itself as!

You could get a new e-mail, I suppose.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I have a new email.

But I've had this one for 9 years, so I'm really attached to it. Plus changing everything connected with it would be a gigantic hassle and I just know I'd wind up forgetting a bunch.

 

[Zhen Lin]

Maybe it's a new type of spambot, one that disguises itself as a different e-mail through extensive coding, so naturally, it would get bounced back to the e-mail that it had disguised itself as!

New? Hah. Extensive coding? Even more laughable. It's trivial to send an email message that has a forged From: address. This problem has been around a very, very long time.

What's not so trivial is to forge the sequence of relay servers, but that can't be checked unless the domain name has [wp]Sender Policy Framework[/wp] set up.

 

[eX.A.K.R.]

New? Hah. Extensive coding? Even more laughable. It's trivial to send an email message that has a forged From: address. This problem has been around a very, very long time.

What's not so trivial is to forge the sequence of relay servers, but that can't be checked unless the domain name has [wp]Sender Policy Framework[/wp] set up.

I remember I had this problem once on my old Hotmail account three years back. I posted in the technology forums I used to go to, panicking and asking if someone hacked into my account too. Someone there suggested that a bot was behind it, and told me not to worry too much about the problem, so this problem is not that new or really that complicated.

However, it does seem worrying that someone can forge someone else's identity to send spam messages and getting caught by spam filters for spam they did not send - imagine if you needed to send mail to a server for legitimate purposes one day, but find yourself unable to because you got blocked for spam you didn't send :/ . Which is why I also advise you that it is best for you to change your e-mail account, even if it might be a hassle.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

But if these are bots, what's to prevent them from getting into whatever new mail I may make?

 

[Zhen Lin]

Nothing. But there's nothing to worry about either. To make an analogy with handwritten letters, this is like signing someone else's signature on a letter, putting their address as the return address, and then after going to all that trouble, sending it from a post office 1000 miles away from where that someone else lives.

 

[XD375]

New? Hah. Extensive coding? Even more laughable. It's trivial to send an email message that has a forged From: address. This problem has been around a very, very long time.

What's not so trivial is to forge the sequence of relay servers, but that can't be checked unless the domain name has [wp]Sender Policy Framework[/wp] set up.

Sorry, I'm good with tech, just not e-mail; I don't care much for e-mail.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

So it's not connected with the previous hacker? That's a relief. But how do I get rid of it?

 

[Zhen Lin]

You don't. Unless you happen to know how to criminalise spam worldwide.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

So I'm boned no matter what I do then?

Well, at least it's not using my real name. I looked at one and it said it was "from" someone named Celeste (last name, which I forgot)