Have my email been phised or hacked into?

Question

Okay this is a bit freaky and fraustrating. I got a spam email FROM MY OWN EMAIL ADDRESS! Exactly my own email address. Did I get hacked into by some stupid lowlife or are they using some type of font character or code that makes it seem like my email? Should I close my email account and get a new one?

Answer 1

Don't worry - i serious doubt your email account have been "hacked". You have been reading/watching far too many movies - real people cannot "hack" things without a h**l of a lot of dedication. (Though I would change your password just to be safe, you might have been key logged - this is not a form of "hacking" though)

Now to the seemingly weird and conclusive point regarding you thinking you have been "hacked" - recieving emails off yourself.

It is possible to send an email to someone and disguise it as from someone else (I have no idea how it works though - you will have to do your own research into this.) Most email clients flag this up though as they are not the same as a real email.

Don't worry about it is my advice - I don't think it is legal to send emails this way or it certainly isn't without the account holders permission.

It is very unlikely that you have been "hacked" more likely targeted by spammers.

Sorry I couldn't explain how it all works but I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Normally this happens through meetyourmessenger or BlockDelete, which then spams the user and their contacts.

Articles:

http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/m...

http://cotojo.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/b...

Remedy: Ensure that all of your system patches are up-to-date and all anti-virus / anti-spyware programs are updated and carry out a thorough full scan. Also download Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...

64bit Version:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...