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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 9:21:30 GMT -5
A few days ago, I started getting weird e-mails in the form of bounceback notifications about e-mails to addresses I never sent to.  So I contacted the service provider of my website and they told me I was being spoofed. Which means the following: Spoofing can mean many different things, but in the context of email, it's a technique commonly used by spammers to hide the origin of their emails. When an email is delivered, it will appear to be from one email address, when it actually is from another. Think of it as if you got a letter in the mail with a return address that was forged to appear to come from someplace else. A common reason that spammers will spoof your email is to attempt to trick the recipient into making a damaging statement or releasing sensitive information, such as passwords. It appears it's quite a complicated business to prevent it. I immediately changed my password and since then I have had no more bounceback notices. But I'm still worried and wondering if it will harm me in any way. In any case it looks as if spammers are using my e-mail address... |
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Post by Daniel on Feb 22, 2014 9:49:49 GMT -5
If you were getting the bounces and changing your password stopped it, it sounds like the spammers were routing messages through your email server using your login. In that case, you should be okay now, other than damage already done.
What you need to do now is stay alert to your own messages that get bounced or that never reach their destination. If you start seeing that kind of thing, your email address could be on a black list due to the time it was being used for spam. Getting off black lists can be a pain, but it might be worth the effort if your email address is tied to a lot of things.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 9:51:49 GMT -5
I haven't gotten any bouncebacks as a result of my own messages but my cover designer tried to e-mail me several times and her messages got bounced back to her.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 9:52:44 GMT -5
How do I get off a black list?
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Post by Daniel on Feb 22, 2014 10:01:37 GMT -5
That can also be a bad sign. Her service provider may subscribe to one of the black list filtering services.
[NerdWarning]
If the reason for the bounce wasn't clear, you may still have a way to find out more. I don't know how savvy she is, but she would have to look at the raw "headers" that get passed along with the message. Most email clients give you a way to do that. One of those headers may offer the reason that the message was bounced. That would at least tell you *why* this is happening. If this suggestion sounds like gobbledygook to her, please ignore it.
[/NerdWarning]
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 10:04:47 GMT -5
I have e-mailed myself from my gmail address and that worked fine and back again. I also got an e-mail from a reader yesterday.
I'm worried because it's the e-mail address I use for connecting with readers who want to be put on my e-mailing list. But hopefully it didn't last long enough for it to have been blacklisted.
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Post by Daniel on Feb 22, 2014 10:19:51 GMT -5
You are probably fine. All you can really do is monitor it for now.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 10:21:47 GMT -5
I looked at the messages that had been bounced back to me. All they contained were links to porn sites (of course). But the original e-mail address (the real sender) is in all the messages. Is there any way I can report that?
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Post by Daniel on Feb 22, 2014 10:41:32 GMT -5
Not that I know of. It may not be a real email address anyway.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 10:45:00 GMT -5
I sent a message to the help desk of the service provider anyway. *sigh* I hate this kind of thing!  And thanks for your help, Daniel. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 22, 2014 11:07:03 GMT -5
Wow ... sorry you're dealing with this, Suzy.
FWIW, I read an article a couple years ago on passwords. It said a password should be a long (like 20+ characters), random string of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and -- if possible -- symbols. If it is made up of words that appear in the dictionary, it can be discovered.
Also, if you do anything password-protected on a public network, someone can sniff out your password. (I should be a lot more careful than I am about that latter issue.)
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 11:15:19 GMT -5
My passwords are always quite random with all kinds of different symbols, letters and numbers. Can't understand how they sniffed that one out.
My son is in Internet security and is now working with a big international bank. He is very much in demand. I'm going to mention this to him.
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 22, 2014 13:40:39 GMT -5
What? You didn't send me that email about having access to $10 million dollar bank account from a dead Swedish prince? I just sent you my bank account info!  My wife's Yahoo email address got spoofed a couple months ago. It sucks, but it happens. Look at Target, Kickstarter, and those companies getting hacked. You might want to send an email to everyone in you contact list to just let them know what happened. |
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Post by Suzy on Feb 22, 2014 13:44:57 GMT -5
No, Alan, that wasn't me. (but you can send me your bank account info whenever you like)
The thing is, that I haven't put any e-mail addresses into the address book on that website. So there is no contact list. Hopefully that will help.
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Post by vrabinec on Feb 23, 2014 12:13:35 GMT -5
This is creepy.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 23, 2014 12:20:12 GMT -5
Very. Can happen to anyone, apparently. So far no one I know has been sent strange e-mails from me. Not even my husband. Although, if he got a link to a porn site from my address, he'd just think I was getting a bit kinky and love it  |
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Post by Alan Petersen on Feb 23, 2014 20:23:34 GMT -5
Very. Can happen to anyone, apparently. So far no one I know has been sent strange e-mails from me. Not even my husband. Although, if he got a link to a porn site from my address, he'd just think I was getting a bit kinky and love it |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 23, 2014 20:51:11 GMT -5
Baum-chicka-baum-baum squirrel-style.  |
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