I just got spam from my own email address. How is that possible?

[battlemaiden]

How can someone use my own email? It was a yahoo address if that matters.

 

Jo

[Alice]

I have no idea...but I've had it happen too. Just wanted to let you know you aren't alone.

[battlemaiden]

Bump.

 

This is concerning.

 

Jo

[Snickerdoodle]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/58666

[nmoira]

Just because it says it's from your email address, doesn't mean it is. This type of thing is easy to spoof. Select "view long headers" or whatever the equivalent option is in your email program. This should at least tell you from where the message originated. Look at the "received" fields and trace back from your email server to the originating server.

[Part-Time Homeschooler]

This has happened to me too. One time I got an irate email from someone who was getting spam from my email address. He/she told me in a very rude manner to stop sending them so much spam. I was shocked by the email because I hadn't sent anything! I contacted my email provider and informed them of the situation. The customer service rep. explained that spammers have ways of making it seem like their emails are coming from legitimate addresses. She said this is very common. I wrote the irate person back to tell them it wasn't me sending the emails. I asked them to let me know if they ever received another spam from my email address so that I could forward it to my email provider. They wrote back and apologized for being so rude and I never heard from them again.