returned mail that i didn't send

[roomby]

From time to time recently, a returned message pops up in my inbox, addressed to someone that I have never heard of. Is this a virus? I have Norton AntiVirus and Internet Security running and up to date and have performed several virus scans. So far, I just delete the messges unopened, but it is annoying and worrying. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[KJN]

Hi,

I also get this from time to time it is not a virus and nothing to worry about,  I agree it is annoying, just keep on deleting them without opening as I do, some people out there just get their kicks by sending these, the main thing is just delete. Unfortunately this is something we shall have to live with until our  service providers decide to spend a lot more of our cash and make things better for us.

[Danny7496]

the reason you get these is as follows, there is someone out there who has a virus on their PC, they also will probably have your email address in their contacts, or they may of sent/recieved a mail from or to you in the past, the virus that they have is automatically generating emails from their machine and sending them out, when it does this it spoofs the from field, to do this it searches the infected PC's contacts, inbox and sent items for email addresses, so someone somewhere will recieve an email that will say it is from you, their mail system will reject it as it may have a virus, or contain spam, so the rejected email (non delivery report) gets sent back to you, as your email address is in the from field. Hope this helps.

[roomby]

Thanks for your answers. I knew it was virus activity and it's reassuring to know that it's not on my own PC.