Spam

[Apathetic Lurker]

Is there anyway to save your email addy after its been compromised and used by spammers selling crap pharmaceuticals?

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Is there anyway to save your email addy after its been compromised and used by spammers selling crap pharmaceuticals?

Make sure that it has actually been used for spam, Lurker. I received an email which seemed to come from my ISP saying my email account had been used for spam but I contacted them and it wasn't from my ISP at all. It was a phishing attack with an embedded link to a spammer's web site requiring me to use my username and password to access my account and thus pass them on to the spammer.

So make sure that it has indeed been used for spam.

I'm not an expert on this so someone will correct me if the following is not correct:

Even if it spam has been sent apparently from your account:

1) your email address may have been spoofed not actually used

2) it could be a one-off and changing your account password may well prevent further use

I repeat - I'm not an expert so if anyone knows the above is incorrect then please correct it as I don't want to mislead you

[Apathetic Lurker]

My wife got an email from me with a link to some shady pharma stuff.....I checked my sent folder..there were quite a few there to my contacts which I know I did not send..All dated today

edit: I got one sent to me too....

Malwarebytes shows nothing

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

My wife got an email from me with a link to some shady pharma stuff.....I checked my sent folder..there were quite a few there to my contacts which I know I did not send..All dated today

edit: I got one sent to me too....

Malwarebytes shows nothing

Is it a web based email account or one supplied by your ISP? In other words is the "sent" folder on your own PC or on a hosted web site?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Im not even sure...its AOL

how do I check?

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Im not even sure...its AOL

how do I check?

I don't know what email facilities AOL supplies you with, Lurker, so I'll leave it to those who do. If it's web based - on a web site hosted on AOL's computers - then a password change may be enough but if it's through an email client installed on your PC - Outlook Express, Windows Mail etc - then it could be your PC has been compromised.

[Apathetic Lurker]

I actually remember that I get into AOL through my browser(Firefox)...so Im guessing it should be on their web site, right?

[DaddyTorgo]

Yep. It should be on their website. Try a password change - that should hopefully fix it.

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

I actually remember that I get into AOL through my browser(Firefox)...so Im guessing it should be on their web site, right?

There will be a password associated with your email account - I'm not sure exactly how AOL handles this - but it is worthwhile changing that password and seeing if that prevents any further abuse of you email account.

[Apathetic Lurker]

did that and changed the security question too..thanks guys

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

did that and changed the security question too..thanks guys

I think that should do it. Just check on your "sent" folder occasionally to see that things are ok.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Hopefully..

Quick question..what might have caused this? Their end? My end? Who knows?

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Hopefully..

Quick question..what might have caused this? Their end? My end? Who knows?

Damned if I know how they go about this, Lurker - I once had a guy set up an ebay account in my name with my credit card and never did find how that came about.

Your username is no problem but whether they got your password from you or simply through some process of eliminatuion I don't know. It's probably worthwhile running a malware check on your PC to see if it picks anything up.

[Sun Tzu]

[JediKooter]

AOL is still around?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Im too apathetic to get rid of it

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Im too apathetic to get rid of it

Haha! Nice. I honestly didn't think it was still around. Next you are going to say your Compuserve account is fine.

[Matthean]

Yahoo and Hotmail have been sending out spam e-mail as well so I don't think it's just an AOL thing.

[dawgfan]

I had a similar issue with my Hotmail account a few weeks ago. Around 3-4 times per day, I'd notice that my "Drafts" folder had new listings to everyone in my contacts list. They weren't sent, and I deleted them, but then around 2AM spam would actually get sent from my Hotmail account. Ran all my antivirus/spyware/malware software on my home laptop, couldn't find a thing. Once I changed my Hotmail password though, it stopped and hasn't yet returned.

Damned if I know how my account got compromised. I would suspect brute force password cracking, but who knows.