Email Account 'Hijacked'

[stuartcox]

Has anybody else experienced advertising emails being sent from their email account?
It has happend to me several times now -just today again- and can be quite embarrassing.
These emails go to everybody in my contact list and have nothing to do with me what so ever.
How do they do it? How do I get rid of them?

[Ickie]

first i would do an online scan like here
http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA-Labs/security-threats/tools/online-scanner

most of these are not really coming from you unless you have a virus, if you look into the header you will find the IP addy where it is really being sent from.

[stiz]

i've been haveing the same problem the last couple of weeks, even though the pc is clean its still happening, useing yahoo, wouldnt be suprised if it was one of their dodgy ads they have on from time to time

[fleurdelys]

Has anybody else experienced advertising emails being sent from their email account?
It has happend to me several times now -just today again- and can be quite embarrassing.
These emails go to everybody in my contact list and have nothing to do with me what so ever.
How do they do it? How do I get rid of them?

Bonjour Stuart,

One of my cousins had the same problem and her account was used to send trash from time to time to all present in her contact list ...

There is no easy way of fixing it except to change your name account to something else than the present one and, send an e-mail to everybody in your contact list explaining the problem and the fact that you must change your account to a new name !
You should advise everybody to put your present address in the "Spam" or unwanted mail which should cure the problem for everyone...

Hope this helps although there could be other cures which I am not aware of...

Good luck

[stuartcox]

I will certainly not be changing my email address! That is a very last solution.
I've had it for years. It's printed on cards, letterheads etc., bust most importantly is needed to log in to websites.
I will fight the bastards!
Let's see what more information I can get.
Thanks so far,

Stuart

[stansdds]

Although it is possible that someone has hijacked your email account, the advertisement emails could also be coming from a worm or your email account may have been spoofed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

[Navy Chief]

A4skyhawk is having the same problem. Received another of the same type email from him today. Doesn't bother me really, because I know right away not to open it. But I DO know what a pain it can be to deal with.

NC