Some Nothing Person

[weecalf]

Some nothing person has got into my email and sent an email to all my contact .I notified some of them that I can .Most would know not to open it but of those that would what would happen ? Know it not my fault as I change password quite often ,hate this sorta thing happening .

[woofgang]

They probably haven't got into your email. but have harvested your addy from somewhere else...it happens to us all at some point.

[weecalf]

What is the difference woofgang .I change the password again .thanks for your reply

[jno]

if they've got a list of your contacts you're probably been hacked. Some robot has guessed your password. Just change it again.

I've no idea what emails have been sent out in your name - probably spam ads rather than bugs. Can't you notify all your contacts, as the robot did?

[jake-the-peg]

Quite possibly a piece of malware (virus)

You get a mail from someone you know - probably containing a link

You click the link - the machine is infected - the malware mails the link out to everybody in your address book and so it goes on

Then it sets to work either using your machine to do other things, tries to find or intercept your credit card details if you use them on the machine or any one of a hundred other things you'd rather it didn't do.

Do you run up to date anti-virus on your machine?

If not you should install some and do a full scan.

But unfortunately it's much harder to detect malwae on a PC once it's there than to stop it getting a foothold

[weecalf]

yes up to date anti virus on the laptop

[VHG]

Do you use the same email address / password combination to log on to any web sites?

If you do, one of those web sites may have "stolen" your e mail / password combination and used it to log on to your email system.

ALWAYS use different passwords to log on to web sites that you do to log on to your email system.

Also reserve one email address for friends and relatives and don't use it ANYWHERE else.

Then set up Gmail (Googlemail) or outlook.com email addresses for anything you do on the web.

Then if your email address is stolen by a web site they wont have access to your contact on your "family" email address.

[woofgang]

everywhere you email is stored it can be harvested. So you might have given it to a friend who got hacked, or someone might have sent you one of those funny circulating emails. People send them on the friends without cleaning off the previous email addys and at some point that email will hit someone whose security is weak and then the whole lot get collected by someone up to no good. They also have been known to start one off themselves with their address hidden

[weecalf]

Thanks all .can I just change email address or do I have to contact bt

[woofgang]

personally I wouldn't do anything, you have told your friends and these things run their course. If you change your addy then unless you are really tight about who you give it to, it will happen again, maybe even the day after you have changed it and its all to do again. Change your passwords, make sure that your security is tight, delete those round robin emails immediately without opening and don't send them on. Ask/tell your friends not to send them to you.

[weecalf]

thanks all .will maybe hear from some contacts .why do people do this sorta thing .Ah we'll expect it happens all the time .

[woofgang]

yes it does.