Spam Email?

Sunray_2003 is right. NEVER try to reply to this mail. If you use the latest version of Netscape or Mozilla, you can use the build-in spamfilter. For me it's working great.

> I didn't send them an email so why am I getting a response?  
This can happen if a computer is infected with Sobig.F virus and there's your mail address stored on this computer. Because this virus spoofes the sender's address by using one of the locally stored mail addresses it can send out itself with your address. If the mail is not deliverable the response will come back to your real mail account. Besides Sobig there are many other mail worms that use mail spoofing.

Sometimes it's possible to find out the virus if the original message is available. Is there any private content after the "Message follows:" or can you post the text here?

Hi bdapsn01,

I would recommend, update your virus Definitions, for your Anti Virus Tools.
Run a Complete Scan.
Install a Ani Spyware/Adware Tool (Demo version) run a comeplete Scan.
If everything is fine.

Ignore the Message. and add that to your Block List. (ask you system Admin to do so)

Regards,
Sandy..

You donot have to send anyone but still you get it because your email address will be in the contact list of any of your friends and he might have got the virus.

The virus creats its own smtp server in the infect computer and you might be getting the emails even without the knowledge of the person from where it is coming from

Sunray

You might also wish to consider taking the following step to help trap or alert you to any further worm or virii infections on your system.

In your address book, place an entry for the following person:

AAAVirusInfectionAlert@Nosuchemailaddressexists.org

What this does is create a bogus entry that will BOUNCE if any worm or virus scans your list of email addresses, you will get a note in email saying that AAAVirus... et al  can't be delivered - no such server etc.

This is your cue to disconnect and debug your system.

Hey BPA,

I have the same problem but it escalates quickly.

I am no more than a novice so forgive me any ignorance I display here.

I write only in an attempt to find out more. No interest in the points.

Yes, virus protection, firewalls, Spyware and cookie managers will help ensure your PC security. You will only get whatever virus is within the attachment ( it's definitely there in these bogus emails ) if you open it or your protection is not current.

Firstly this problem may be occurring to Hotmail users only ( again, this is only what I can gather so far and could be very wrong).

The only advice I can find on Microsoft bulletin boards is in the FAQ for the Security/Virus Discussion bulletin board.

This basically says that it is a virus which you have been sent as someone who has your email address has opened one such attachment and you have been sent this/these emails as a result of that. That may well be the truth, however :

I picked up the problem through a Hotmail account but thought I was being tracked by a spammer ( I'm told that is wrong on another bulletin board ).

I abandoned the Hotmail accounts I had as the one affected simply attracted an increasing number and variety of these bogus emails. The size of attachments so far has varied from 106kb to 156 kb so it is widening or broadening or whatever the " technical " term is.

I subsequently opened a new Hotmail account and did not use it to send any email etc. I set the junk mail filters to not delete junkmail immediately. Within hours that email account received more emails than the free Hotmail limit allows ( 2 megs ).

Deleting these only frees the space in the Hotmail account to allow more of the same.

As a result of this you get a warning message from Microsoft that you have exceeded the limit etc etc.

So, no one had this email address at all but the new account still attracted these bogus emails. This does not make sense to me given Microsofts FAQ advice that " someone else who had your email address opened the attachment to one of these bogus emails ".

My ignorance may be obvious here to others with more knowledge and I would be keen for any such person to correct what I write here.

I am not astute on this topic in any way ( obvious I guess )

Centore

Hello again,

I've stumbled on a series of articles at ZDNET which may help enlighten us at to what is happening with this email problem :

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/filters/specialreport/0,14622,6025221,00.html

Centore

nah dont worry about this,

A spam bot would have collected your email from somewhere and used it in the 'from' field in spam message to avoid spam filters

I get many like this every day

If you ever want a to get a good Spam Blocker for Outlook or Outlook Express, Spam Bully is very good, it has a great feature, which lets you simulate the address as being un-found, which bounces the message back to the people.  On one of my email accounts I had about 400 spam emails a day, now I get barely any, so if you ever need to get a good Spam Blocker, it's definately worth trying, you can download it here at : http://www.spambully.com

I hope that helps,
Liam

"Should I be concerned about this email that came to me?  "

Yes. - Beware of just who is doing what.
No. -  This one is not to you or about you so do not make any hasty reaction

"I didn't send them an email so why am I getting a response?  "

Spoofing. You know someone who has that email address as text on their HD. Or rather, the same person, who has the virus, has both addresses stored somewhere. If it is someone you know, then it would be nice to warn them. You can try to look at packet headers to identify them, but do not bother to reply to this one or else you may just add your name to another list and end up with even more strange messages and spam. If you have a good email administrator, you should forward to them, to let them pool what they can about the international email abusers

"Could some out their know my email address and spoofing my email address and send email on my behalf?"

Maybe. And maybe not before, but more likely now. Still, no reason to help them if they goofed up on this attempt. It may even be a trick, a random guess on your name, to see if your random name responds in reply, to trick you to add your name to a mass-mailing list of spammers or worse.

In review of comments, I think I mean by mine to agree earliest with the one from  ghana and then sunray_2003 2nd comment.  You need not fear it spying you or adware-ing you. etc. It seems lame. No need to rush even to AV, but these days you'd probably be advised to have all of that, after putting up a firewall for defense.

as fyi, I tried the zdnet link and was taken to this:
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/index.html
a generic one, so I am unclear on the referenced
- as fyi

news?