E-mail Problem

[coccinelle]

This is the second time this has happened in a week. An e-mail has been sent to everybody in my address book, with a short message (in English) and then a link. I haven't a clue why this is happening. My computer is protected by Bitdefender and scans for viruses very regularly and my e-mails are protected by McAphee. Anyone know what's happening? I've now just left my own e-mail address in the address book so nobody will get bothered by this a third time, but I'll know if the problem happens again.

[VHG]

Maybe you were spoofed?

http://searchsecurity...nition/email-spoofing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

[VHG]

The other thing that can happen is that you have somehow "given away" your email address and password by mistake.

Lets look at how that can happen.

You have an email address of say [email protected]. The password for the email system is "football".

Then you register for a web site (any web site).

Most web sites nowadays ask you to register for a web site using your email address, so you use [email protected]. As a password on that web site you use a password of "football".

So by registering for that web site with [email protected] and using a password of "football", you have given the web site owners the ability to logon to your email system.

Some suggestions:

Have a number of different email addresses and use one ONLY for friends and family, never use it for anything else.

Then create other email addresses for registering for web sites. Use googlemail or hotmail for free email addresses.

Then ALWAYS use a different password for your email system to the one you use for web sites.

[coccinelle]

Thank you VHG This is strange as I'm sure I sent you a reply.... I've changed my password so hopefully that will put a stop to it.