Someone sending false emails.... ???? :+(

[Danny]

Can someone answer why this is happening?

I get a email from (in this case my sister) with only a LINK included.
It is addressed to me....my daughter, my brother and two nephews.

I have learned to be SUSPICIOUS of emails with only a LINK and nothing eles said....

I called my sister and she told me SHE DID NOT SEND IT?

In fact this same thing was sent to me TWICE at different times of the day.

Well my Lil Brother recieved this and OPENED the LINK.  Now his laptop does not work.

Would LOVE to know how this kind of thing is happening.  Help?

Thanks....  Danny  :+}

[GrayBeard]

Someone has 'hacked' your sister's email account and is using her account with her password to send malware!

Tell her to CHANGE her PASSWORD immediately and it should stop.

~~~GB~~~

[Russ C]

I agree with GB. I usually tell my clients to change it once a day for three days just to make sure. 

[BilltheDiver]

Danny,
They are correct, but if changing the password doesn't work, contact me and I will send you a file that will help.  I had the same problem.

[chelcass]

I had that happen to me a couple weeks ago.  Family and friends let me know and I immediatley changed my passwood and that way the end of that.  Tell your sister to use a combination of letter, numbers and puncation, makes it harder to be hacked.

Chels

[tux_linux]

STOP!

Nobody hacked anything.

An Email with a false senders address/ name can be send by every person - even my mother would be able to do it!
Spammers in fact don't need to hack anything:

The provider you're working with (the stuff that comes behind the "@") has several servers to provide email and internet access for you.
For Email he needs at least 2 Servers: One is called SMTP Server, the other POP3 Server. Some also have IMAP Server, but those are similar to POP3 Servers.

A SMTP Server is used for sending messages. He doesn't do anything else - he is just there for sending emails out around the world.
A POP3 or IMAP Server is just there for receiving messages. He does nothing else - in fact, if he can't read a message and needs to reply to the sender, he addresses his friend the SMTP to send that service message.

But this friend is not very smart. The SMTP is able to check whether you are allowed to send messages - but he doesn't check the messages (well, at least as long as you don't have trouble with FBI/CIS...). SO he does not care for what you have written. He does not really care if you added files. He does not care for whether you entered a subject - and sadly the SMTP does not care if your address is correct that you have added to the message for reply. You can also send big amounts of emails  - my wife's father is a leading figure in sports here and sends his emails usually to 300-400 people at a time. The technical limit on most email servers is around 35 thousand emails to be send at a time - some might be limited to avoid spaming.

This leads to a strange situation as you are able to apply another address for reply - or one that you don't even have a hold on.

Now as a spammer you can buy addresses. You buy them in a set of 10 thousand or 100 thousand. They don't cost much.
And they use those addresses. But that's not so legal as they which to - so they use one or the other address of that set and apply that address to be the sender of the spam. I would even guess they switch the senders address every couple of messages.

So all what happened is a simple spam. Nothing else. Now you can act wild, cuss and swear and call the police - but my guess is that it is better to simply delete the spam and to care for more important things.

[Crabbyboater]

Thanks, Torston. But I still have a question..Someone sent about 30 emails out "from" me last week, and all of the addresses sent to were from my address  book.  Some were to people I hadn't communicated with for about 5 years.  Wasn't the entire address book as that contains about 300 names.  So how did he get the addresses from my address book unless he hacked me some way?

On the humorous side, one of the emails went to my pastor with me promoting the use of Viagra.  He thought it was funny!

BTW, I DID change my email password.

[Gabby]

Crabby
Run an anti virus on your machine, you probably have a program that is attacking your address book.
Known as a virus but goes by other names too, I won't get into all of that.

I administer my wife's website and check all her mail. Since her address is on several dog breeders websites it is easy for spammers to find and as a consequence I have many junk e mails addressed to her. This is why I don't put my address on forums such as this.
When I do get them I forward them to anti spam, and anti phishing addresses provided by those agencies and let them deal with those rats! Once I have passed them along I put them in my blocked senders list which prevents them sending me anything else from that address. Just do a simple search for anti spam and, anti phishing, and their addresses will be provided for you to send suspicious mail to.
Always take the time to look and see if the sender is someone you know. Another red flag igrammarrammer and spelling are quite often incorrect, sometimes even totally nonsense.
Junk them!
There are truely bad people out there, protect your selves.
Some people may poo poo what I've said. Do what you feel is best.
Gabby

[tux_linux]

crabby, can you see the messages to be send from your computer? then you have a problem.
I have not seen such a tool since a long time to do so. Check the Task Manager running on your machine (STRG+ALT+ENTF and then "Task Manager"). Enter strange names of processes at google to see what those programs are up to. If you find one that is known to be not good - kill the process and refer to the folder "Windows/System" and/or  "Windows/System32" to find that program. Rename it and it will not be able to start again.
A good tool to keep an overview about what's running on your computer is CCleaner ( www.ccleaner.com  - freeware).
It's designed to delete the internet files and unused registry entries. It also provides options to see what programs are starting when your computer is switched on. Very fine thing, works like a charm.

If it's just your email address that has been used - that is possible without your computer.

[Gabby]

Torston
The first time my PC crashed was due to using one of those cleaner programs.
It stripped out files the computer needed to boot up.
I caution everyone who isn't a computer geek to procede with caution. If you don't know what the program is doing and how it works don't do it. Get professsional help.
Brought my PC back from the shop yesterday, and AVG was installed by the shop, and flashed a message that it needed to perform a scan, so I clicked OK,
I was in the process of loading the disc for my printer and it for an unknown reason to me crashed the computer. It's headed back to the tech as soon as I get off here!
Substitute the dirty words of your own choice!
Gabby

[Crabbyboater]

Gabby and Tortsten, thanks for your responses and ideas.  I don't think the messages were actually sent from my computer, but they did show me as the sender.  I'm quick to delete any messages from sources I don't know, and I often hover my cursor over a senders name to see what the real sender address is.  And you're right that any email with bad spelling and grammar is a sure indicator of a scam.  Supposedly I've left many millions of dollars unclaimed in various countries, and failed to rescue a couple of distant relatives that needed bail in a foreign country.

I did open an email from an old friend that didn't seem right, and wrote back to her that I suspected someone was using her address book to send stuff out.  It was shortly after this that I started having my problems so I suspect that's how something got into my computer.  Just hope I haven't helped spread this virus? to my friends now.

I was using Microsoft Essentials which I understand is a good program, but changed anyway to Norton because Comcast offers it for free to their subscribers.  I had the computer tested by Staples techs, and they did find and removed one Trojan, but weren't sure it could have caused my problem.  Haven't had any problems since I got it back.

[tux_linux]

Gabby, CCleaner is safe. It works really well and does not provide options to kill the machine. also it can make some more advanced settings that can make you feel uncomfortable... true. But that is also possible by changing various settings manually on the computer.

Crabby, sounds like the usual spam. How did you find out about the messages that have been send "by you"?
Spammers get their addresses from companies or due to various newsletter, price contests and everywhere, where someone enters an address. People need to be more patient about where they leave their marks - when someone provides a textbox to fill in the address, he probably also wants to use it. Everyone needs to consider that. Also if a website asks for postal address - that is mostly used to send a bill. Why else would someone want your postal address?

I personally use multiple email adresses. I have one for the job, one private, one for selling, one for ebay, one for special occations (when I get a message there I know it's a special one) and one for all occasions where I don't want to type in my other addresses. The spam address is directed directed to the spam folder.

[Gabby]

I'll take your word for it.
I only put my hand in a fire once though!
Gabby

[Crabbyboater]

Torsten, I found out about it when I got notices that two messages were undeliverable and looked to see why.  They were to people who had changed their addresses long ago. Then I noticed they were sent to about 50 people, listed in the "To" category.  This is something I never do.  I always address such emails to me, then BCC to everyone else.  I also delete all the names, etc. from a message before forwarding it.

Last night both my wife and I received an email supposedly from me from my old AOL account, which I seldom use.  It had an attachment and we both deleted it without opening.  I then went into AOL, changed my password, and deleted everyone except one company from my address book.  I can't just cancel the AOL because my ex wife is still using it as a secondary name and refuses to change.  But I may have to take the bull by the horns on that!

[Gabby]

  I had the computer tested by Staples techs, and they did find and removed one Trojan, but weren't sure it could have caused my problem.  Haven't had any problems since I got it back.
[/quote]

I suspect that was your culprit.
Glad you got it fixed!
Gabby