# Email Acct. Hacked....A bit off topic but Neccessary



## Shawn Fields (Jan 2, 2008)

Everyone,
Unfortunately my main email acct. has been compromised and its been sending spam emails, heck i've even gotten a few myself to my back-up acct. I'm letting everyone here know that as of Noon today that acct will be closed and I can be reached at my new acct [vgn700 at hotmail.com]. I'll be updating all my online accts today.

Again I am sorry that my machine hasnt been playing nice with the world, and that some people in the world have nothing better to do with their time other than making other people miserable. I think they need a new more productive hobby, like Trains perhaps  

And to those of you that have gotten bogus emails from "me", i cant apologize enough.


Now lets run some trains, well maybe later for me I have work to do.


----------



## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the heads up. Later RJD


----------



## Shawn Fields (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By aceinspp on 02 May 2010 08:28 AM 
Thanks for the heads up. Later RJD 
No Prob RJ, I hate that this happened.


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Unfortunately my main email acct. has been compromised 
There's a lot of it about this month. I've had 2 separate friends get their Yahoo account hacked.


----------



## Curmudgeon (Jan 11, 2008)

A suggestion would be to look at the header details for these messages you are allegedly getting from yourself. 

Lots of folks get these, including us. 

However, all they really have is the forged name or e-mail. 
The originating IP is in Russia, Romania, China, or some other place, often from a known SPAM generator. 

If they are coming from such, there is nothing you can do about it. 
You can change e-mails all the time (which is what they are doing......stirring you up inside like "vandals" would), but they will keep on sending out spam in your name.


----------



## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

As Toc said, its actually very likely that your email account has *not* been hacked.. 
I get spam emails all the time that appear to be from me, to me..but its just a fake header using my name and email address.. 
the spam message isnt *actually* coming from my email account.. 
My email account is actually fine..I just ignore and delete those messages when I see them.. 
no need to cancel or change email accounts.. 

Scot


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

There is a "display name" in an email, and then there is the previously referenced "header information". 

Very few people know how to find and look at the header information. 

I had someone on my network swear that there was something wrong with my email server, or something, because he received emails from someone and the email content was bogus. I told him you cannot go by the "display name". 

He argued up and down that what was shown from the "from" was "Real"... so I asked him if he got an email from "Santa Claus" would he still maintain that it was true? 

"of course not, he said, but that is impossible".... 

Walked over to my computer, changed my email display name to "Santa Claus", sent him an email... 

Walked back to his computer, did a receive... showed him the email from Santa Claus. 

He's never doubted me again for the last 6 years. 

Lots of ways to "spoof" who an email comes from, so without digging into the actual "header", the "displayed name" really means nothing. 

Regards, Greg


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

A suggestion would be to look at the header details for these messages you are allegedly getting from yourself. 
As Toc said, its actually very likely that your email account has *not* been hacked.. 
I get spam emails all the time that appear to be from me, to me..but its just a fake header using my name and email address 

Not this time guys. The emails are sent to everyone in the victims address book from the victim - so someone obviously hacked into the account. 
(Shawn said he was getting emails to his back-up account, not to himself.)


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I don't see where he stated that the "emails are sent to everyone in the victims address book"... if that had been stated it would be obvious. 

But since he got an email to his backup account (which he did indeed state), I agree that someone could have gotten the password to his account, or hacked into a Hotmail database. 

Since the latter is probably not true (would have been on the news if it was a company like Microsoft was hacked), my guess is that his password was found. 

Just changing your password does the trick, no need to stop using your account. The "hack" was most likely a program guessing your password. 

(on further reflection, if your account sent enough spam, that account could be blocked by your friends, but that is unlikely) 

Regards, Greg


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't see where he stated that the "emails are sent to everyone in the victims address book"... 
Greg, 
_I know you are a computer geek like me, but I try not to be too literal all the time. ;-) _ 

my main email acct. has been compromised and its been sending spam emails 
As I mentioned, I know a couple of folk who have sent their contacts spam email. Someone is getting access to the account and sending to all the address book entries. It's not like the usual spam, as it really does come from their account and you can reply to it. I usually do, as they don't always know it is happening.


----------



## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Pete Thornton on 05 May 2010 06:52 AM 
I don't see where he stated that the "emails are sent to everyone in the victims address book"... 
Greg, 
_I know you are a computer geek like me, but I try not to be too literal all the time. ;-) _

my main email acct. has been compromised and its been sending spam emails 


As I mentioned, I know a couple of folk who have sent their contacts spam email. Someone is getting access to the account and sending to all the address book entries. It's not like the usual spam, as it really does come from their account and you can reply to it. I usually do, as they don't always know it is happening. 




Well, he might be assuming that "my main email acct. has been compromised and its been sending spam emails" simply because emails exist that *appear* to be coming from his email account..
but its still possible, and far more likely IMO, that they are not actually, literally, being sent from his email account, and are instead simply spoofed messages..

it could be either..spoofed messages or an actual account takeover..but we dont know for sure either way..
and we cant tell based on Shawn's original message alone..

if someone wasnt aware that the "spoofing" thing even existed (which I didnt when this first happened to me) its very natural to assume the messages MUST be coming from your hacked email account, that someone has actually taken over..but most of the time this is not the case..

Scot


----------



## Shawn Fields (Jan 2, 2008)

A small Update,
That email acct is now closed, this is the first time I've encountered this I just figured the acct had been hacked into. As just about everyone in my Contacts had received bogus emails from "me" mainly about purchasing discount electronics from wherever, So before the acct. was closed I went to send myself an email and the email had all of this information about buying stuff in the message, It was already in the email preloaded I guess would be the term to use in the message area, needless to say I didn't send it and closed that window immediately for fear of infecting my new PC.


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

it could be either..spoofed messages or an actual account takeover.. 
Sheesh, guys. Shawn said his account had been compromised, and I confirmed a couple of friends of mine had the same thing happen. It's not spoofing - it's account hacking/takeover. 

Does it have to happen to you before you believe what he says?


----------



## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Pete Thornton on 05 May 2010 11:25 AM 
it could be either..spoofed messages or an actual account takeover.. 


Sheesh, guys. Shawn said his account had been compromised, and I confirmed a couple of friends of mine had the same thing happen. It's not spoofing - it's account hacking/takeover. 

Does it have to happen to you before you believe what he says? 




Sheesh pete,
no one said it wasnt possible..
it was just unclear exactly what happened in this case..thats all..
what happened to your friends is irrelevant..

Scot


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 04 May 2010 08:06 AM 
I don't see where he stated that the "emails are sent to everyone in the victims address book"... if that had been stated it would be obvious. 

But since he got an email to his backup account (which he did indeed state), *I *agree [/b]that someone could have gotten the password to his account[/b], or hacked into a Hotmail database. 

Since the latter is probably not true (would have been on the news if it was a company like Microsoft was hacked), *my guess is that his password was found*. 

Just changing your password does the trick, no need to stop using your account. The "hack" was most likely a program guessing your password. 

(on further reflection, if your account sent enough spam, that account could be blocked by your friends, but that is unlikely) 

Regards, Greg 


Uhh... Pete, the word AGREE in my reply has been put in bold. I was not disagreeing with you.

I did try to present some other scenarios in order to help others in similar situations, and to present other possibilities... but I did agree with your assessment...

Before getting upset, read the entire post carefully, and see what I really said. I don't think I made any errors or untruths, but if I did just point them out.


I was hoping to also point out other types of problems and possibilities for the benefit of our fellow forum members.

Regards, Greg


----------

