I would question using Yahoo email. My roommate and I came up with about 5 people, all Northern Cal whose Yahoo email accounts have been hijacked to use for SPAM, four recent incidents. I would suggest that you might want to change your Yahoo addresses if you are a local resident to something else.
I have had success with Gmail. It's useful, particularly if you have ATT or Comcast, or something like that and have to change your TV/ISP providers occasionally due to changes in your entertainment-phone system on-ramp services for new residences. It helps that using Gmail means that you don't have to keep sending your contact list an updated email address. Don't tell me about problems with Gmail :wink:. Nothing is perfect. Just sayin' it is happening at an alarming rate locally.
AllorrahBe
09-24-2011, 10:46 PM
It happened to me twice. Both times, the name selected was a male's I rarely communicate with, but have sent emails to several times in the past. Thus, I would be eager to hear from them and read their emails.
The Subject: Usually blank, or it would just say: SUBJECT: Re:
When I clicked to open these emails from my male friends, I got advice on how to buy some product for ED -- conceivably, for my male friend? Watch out, you are all vulnerable to this insidious smarmy spam!
May the White Light surround all Waccovians!
Rev. Allorrah Be
Circles of Light Ministries
Sebastopol, California USA
I would question using Yahoo email. My roommate and I came up with about 5 people, all Northern Cal whose Yahoo email accounts have been hijacked to use for SPAM, four recent incidents. I would suggest that you might want to change your Yahoo addresses if you are a local resident to something else.
I have had success with Gmail. It's useful, particularly if you have ATT or Comcast, or something like that and have to change your TV/ISP providers occasionally due to changes in your entertainment-phone system on-ramp services for new residences. It helps that using Gmail means that you don't have to keep sending your contact list an updated email address. Don't tell me about problems with Gmail :wink:. Nothing is perfect. Just sayin' it is happening at an alarming rate locally.
Glia
09-25-2011, 07:33 PM
A good way to avoid such issues is to NOT use the contacts list function in Gmail (etc.) and keep that info on your computer's address book application only.
It happened to me twice. Both times, the name selected was a male's I rarely communicate with, but have sent emails to several times in the past. Thus, I would be eager to hear from them and read their emails. ...
alanora
09-26-2011, 03:54 PM
UHHHH, I switched to Yahoo when the address @ hotmail was used by a spammer. Yes, never use the function that mails everyone. Mindy
Hotspring 44
09-26-2011, 10:35 PM
It is 99.99% likely your email accounts were never hacked into (or "hijacked") at all.
The article is copyrighted so I won't copy it here, but I can give a link to the article (titled: "How do spammers send email that looks like it comes from me?") that I believe will clarify what is 99.99% likely to have happened even though the hacking, 'hijacking' spam mail that you received may have had a different sender than your email address.
I had the same thing happen to me as what was discribed in the article :evg::pullshair: even though I never ever used Outlook Express or anything like it and I also never, ever mailed to all or even to more than 4 recipients the same email.
I have recieved forwarded emails that had 50+ other addresses as recipients. That is where I suspect the area that my email address 'clone' was most likely to have been gleaned from; that 'list'.
It is an old trick that spammers (:spam4:) use that has been going on for years and it most certainly not limited to any single email provider like yahoo, Gmail, earthlink, hotmail, ect.
I kept my same email address because changing it would have been and was actually unnecessary. Big Smile
Also if you use public WiFi or you have a home or workplace WiFi network without the correct security firewalls in place then your passwords could be easily hacked resulting in many potential major computer and email issues.:computervirus:
Hotspring 44
09-26-2011, 10:56 PM
It is 99.99% likely your email accounts were never hacked into (or "hijacked") at all.
The article is copyrighted so I won't copy it here, but I can give a link to the article (titled: "How do spammers send email that looks like it comes from me?") that I believe will clarify what is 99.99% likely to have happened even though the hacking, 'hijacking' spam mail that you received may have had a different sender than your email address.
More links that may be helpful:
Someone's sending email that looks like it's from me to my contacts, what can I do? (https://ask-leo.com/someones_sending_email_that_looks_like_its_from_me_to_my_contacts_what_can_i_do.html)
Someone's stolen my email account and is scamming my contacts for money, what do I do? (https://ask-leo.com/someones_stolen_my_email_account_and_is_scamming_my_contacts_for_money_what_do_i_do.html)
Why do messages I compose in Hotmail now start with an ad that looks like it's from me? (https://ask-leo.com/why_do_messages_i_compose_in_hotmail_now_start_with_an_ad_that_looks_like_its_from_me.html)
change more than just your password (https://ask-leo.com/is_changing_my_password_enough.html)
Why am I getting spam from myself? (https://ask-leo.com/why_am_i_getting_spam_from_myself.html)
Someone has stolen my email account. What can I do to get it back? (https://ask-leo.com/someone_has_stolen_my_email_account_what_can_i_do_to_get_it_back.html)
My mail account has a virus, how do I get rid of it? (https://ask-leo.com/my_mail_account_has_a_virus_how_do_i_get_rid_of_it.html)
All these links came from:
https://ask-leo.com/someones_sending_from_my_email_address_how_do_i_stop_them.html
(https://ask-leo.com/someones_sending_from_my_email_address_how_do_i_stop_them.html)