How is someone sending emails from my account

[Jezzer]

A friend of mine is receiving emails from my email address advertising electronics but I never sent them.

I have a strong password which I changed as soon as I was made aware of the first email, I changed my security details as well but since then another 2 emails have been sent.

I don't have any automatic mailing software and the emails are not in my sent box. How is this happening when I have done all my security.

[Simon H]

Someone could have sent email from your account and deleted it from the sent folder although changing the password should have locked them out unless it’s someone who knows the new password.

It could be some sort of virus that is emailing your contacts so you might want to check if anyone else has received fake emails appearing to be from you. Do you have up to date anti virus and anti malware software. If not you need to get some such as Microsoft Security Essentials and scan your computer. If its been infected this should find and remove the offending malware.

It could be someone spoofing your email address. This does not require your email account to be compromised. All someone has to do is create an email account using their own account information and enter your email address in the display name field.Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about this other than explain to your friends what someone has been doing.

[Steve]

Someone could have sent email from your account and deleted it from the sent folder although changing the password should have locked them out unless it’s someone who knows the new password.

It could be some sort of virus that is emailing your contacts so you might want to check if anyone else has received fake emails appearing to be from you. Do you have up to date anti virus and anti malware software. If not you need to get some such as Microsoft Security Essentials and scan your computer. If its been infected this should find and remove the offending malware.

 

It could be someone spoofing your email address. This does not require your email account to be compromised. All someone has to do is create an email account using their own account information and enter your email address in the display name field.Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about this other than explain to your friends what someone has been doing.

 

Simon answered all the items I can think of.

It could be a virus on your PC which is recording your key strokes or when it was on your box, it took your local contacts and is now spamming them.

It could also be someone using a simple SMTP program (like blat for instance) that allows you to send email using any email address.

Best advice is make sure your AV application is fully updated and do a full scan then change all your Passwords again.

[Jezzer]

Someone could have sent email from your account and deleted it from the sent folder although changing the password should have locked them out unless it’s someone who knows the new password.

It could be some sort of virus that is emailing your contacts so you might want to check if anyone else has received fake emails appearing to be from you. Do you have up to date anti virus and anti malware software. If not you need to get some such as Microsoft Security Essentials and scan your computer. If its been infected this should find and remove the offending malware.

 

It could be someone spoofing your email address. This does not require your email account to be compromised. All someone has to do is create an email account using their own account information and enter your email address in the display name field.Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about this other than explain to your friends what someone has been doing.

 

thanks guys I think it must have been spoofing because its ok now