«

Hi there,

I've just (for the first time ever in 10 odd years of using email) received
a junk email, which says it is from my own account.

It definitely wasn't me sending myself this advertisement - so how did they
do this?

I considered the simplest explanation - someone discovered my password and
went in to my account (hotmail) - but this makes no sense. Firstly, why
would anyone need to access my account just to send me a junk email, and
secondly if they did access my account they probably would have done a lot
more damage than a simple junk email back to me.

Can the message sender be disguised to look as if it was me?

Regards,

Tanel.

Tanel Kagan wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I've just (for the first time ever in 10 odd years of using email) received
> a junk email, which says it is from my own account.
>
> It definitely wasn't me sending myself this advertisement - so how did they
> do this?
>
> I considered the simplest explanation - someone discovered my password and
> went in to my account (hotmail) - but this makes no sense. Firstly, why
> would anyone need to access my account just to send me a junk email, and
> secondly if they did access my account they probably would have done a lot
> more damage than a simple junk email back to me.
>
> Can the message sender be disguised to look as if it was me?

Yes.


--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://improve-usenet.org <----------- New Site Aug 28

Tanel Kagan wrote:

> I've just (for the first time ever in 10 odd years of using email)
> received a junk email, which says it is from my own account.

That's 'amazing' -- because it has been going on all over the place for
a very very very long time.

> It definitely wasn't me sending myself this advertisement - so how
> did they do this?

Fundamentally 'all' spam has a bogus From. There is nothing to keep the
bogus From from being the same as the recipient's address.

> I considered the simplest explanation - someone discovered my
> password and went in to my account (hotmail)

You considered /that/ to be the 'simplest' explanation? How strange.

> - but this makes no
> sense.

Correct.

> Firstly, why would anyone need to access my account just to
> send me a junk email, and secondly if they did access my account they
> probably would have done a lot more damage than a simple junk email
> back to me.

Etc.

> Can the message sender be disguised to look as if it was me?

It is normal for spam to have a bogus From. Your address is as good as
any other.



--
Mike Easter

Ok, but how can I find out if my address is being used?


"Mike Easter" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Tanel Kagan wrote:
>
>> I've just (for the first time ever in 10 odd years of using email)
>> received a junk email, which says it is from my own account.
>
> That's 'amazing' -- because it has been going on all over the place for
> a very very very long time.
>
>> It definitely wasn't me sending myself this advertisement - so how
>> did they do this?
>
> Fundamentally 'all' spam has a bogus From. There is nothing to keep the
> bogus From from being the same as the recipient's address.
>
>> I considered the simplest explanation - someone discovered my
>> password and went in to my account (hotmail)
>
> You considered /that/ to be the 'simplest' explanation? How strange.
>
>> - but this makes no
>> sense.
>
> Correct.
>
>> Firstly, why would anyone need to access my account just to
>> send me a junk email, and secondly if they did access my account they
>> probably would have done a lot more damage than a simple junk email
>> back to me.
>
> Etc.
>
>> Can the message sender be disguised to look as if it was me?
>
> It is normal for spam to have a bogus From. Your address is as good as
> any other.
>
>
>
> --
> Mike Easter
>

The simplest explanation is that forging email is trivial. How do you
know that it was actually sent from your account? Do you have Hotmail
set up to display full headers? From which IP did Hotmail get the
mail?

"Larry Hale" wrote in message
news:. ..
> Ok, but how can I find out if my address is being used?


So now Tanel Kagan is Larry Hale?

Have you bothered to read the thread(s)? Then you would know if your
address was used ... because it would show up in the headers. How
"used" would depend on how YOU meant for "used".

Larry Hale wrote:
> Ok, but how can I find out if my address is being used?

Your question is top posted, which means that there is no attribution to
whom you are replying, or trimmed context for what you are asking your
question in reference to.

If you are not going to trim the preceding post and 'positionally'
contextualize your remarks to be after that trimmed result, then you
have an 'obligation' to restate in your own words sufficient description
of the preceding message's context which preceded your question for your
question to make some sense.

If I cause your question to ask, "How can I tell if my email address has
ever been used in the From of a single or multiple spams anywhere in the
world?" -- then the answer is "You can't."

If I cause your question to ask, "Given that it is my understanding that
some spam is being generated from zombie machines, how can I know if my
machine is a zombie which generates spam?" -- then the answer is
considerably more complicated.

Since I'm not going to write the question 'properly' for a top poster
and then answer my own guessed-at question, you are going to have to
write your own.


--
Mike Easter

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH

What a load of jumped up bull. Ooooh you're so wonderfully gifted at
gobbledy-gook and not giving this person the answer he craves, which is, YOU
don't know, HE don't know, WE don't know!

Mayhaps he got drunk one night and sent himself a spam.... NOT

The simple, staight-forward resolution is that he dumps his old email
address and creates another, just in case it's been compromised, if he
doesn't want to do that, then he can sit and wonder forever "Is someone else
is using the account?"

Blehhhh

"Tester" <> wrote in message
news: g...
> The simplest explanation is that forging email is trivial. How do you
> know that it was actually sent from your account? Do you have Hotmail
> set up to display full headers? From which IP did Hotmail get the
> mail?
>
>
>

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:12:40 GMT, "davedefeet" <> wrote:

>EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH
>
>What a load of jumped up bull. Ooooh you're so wonderfully gifted at
>gobbledy-gook and not giving this person the answer he craves, which is, YOU
>don't know, HE don't know, WE don't know!

"He" does know, and his questions are correct and quite valid. Just because
*you* don't understand his questions doesn't mean everyone else doesn't.

>Mayhaps he got drunk one night and sent himself a spam.... NOT
>
>The simple, staight-forward resolution is that he dumps his old email
>address and creates another, just in case it's been compromised, if he
>doesn't want to do that, then he can sit and wonder forever "Is someone else
>is using the account?"

A simple glance at the headers of the e-mail in question would tell him that.
Forging *is* trivial to do and it happens all the time. The headers generally
tell you all you need to know. Tester was right to ask.

>Blehhhh

Learn to read headers and it should cure your typing problem.

>"Tester" <> wrote in message
>news: rg...
>> The simplest explanation is that forging email is trivial. How do you
>> know that it was actually sent from your account? Do you have Hotmail
>> set up to display full headers? From which IP did Hotmail get the
>> mail?
>>
>>
>>

--
People in the computer industry use the word "user", which to them
means "idiot". -Dave Barry

"Tester" <> wrote in message
news: g...
> The simplest explanation is that forging email is trivial. How do you
> know that it was actually sent from your account? Do you have Hotmail
> set up to display full headers? From which IP did Hotmail get the
> mail?

Well I actually access my hotmail account through Outlook Express. I had a
look into the "properties" of the email but it appeared to show the source
as my own email address. The rest of the properties and the source
information was a load of numbers that I didn't understand.

I'm not a complete novice but with regard to the more detailed aspects of
message sources and IPs and stuff I'm not really clued up on this. I didn't
know that a program could just substitute the recipient's address in the
"from" field.

Thanks to everyone who replied - and having read all the replies here,
please, let's not have yet another flame war.

Tanel.