Jump to content

Something is sending spam using my email


Recommended Posts

Every month or so I get a Delivery Status Notification telling me that an email sent from my email address could not be delivered - an email which I did not send.  The email is spam.  I'm guessing that some malware program is using my computer to send spam to millions of people.  I run Malwarebytes whenever that happens and I delete all of the malware that Malwarebytes finds.  I can't tell whether (a) Malwarebytes is not finding the malware, (b) I am getting re-infected, or (c ) the Delivery Status Notification is phony.  

 

The email address in the "From" line in the email that the notification says was sent by me is correct but the username "Lisa Cohen" is unknown to me and is not in my email address book.  

 

What should I do about this?

 

Computer: Dell Inspiron 3646 desktop connected to the internet through a router furnished by Time Warner Cable.

 

Operating system: Windows 10

Malwarebytes version: 2.1.8.1057

Antivirus: Whatever came with Windows 10

 

Everything below is the contents of the Delivery Status Notification:

 

"Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Inbox

 

removed to protect user's privacy

11:15 AM (14 hours ago)

Reply

to me 

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

 

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

 

       removed to protect user's privacy

 

 

 

 

Final-Recipient: removed to protect user's privacy

Action: failed

Status: 5.5.0

Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable (1883065440:4198:-2147467259)

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Lisa Cohen <deleted@deleted.com>

To: Lynn Enos removed to protect user's privacy

Cc: 

Date: Fri, 09 Oct 2015 13:15:35 -0500

Subject: Fwd: the story of my long lasting weight loss success

my secret of permanent weight loss results is simple.

it’s on this page URL removed in case page is malicious

take a moment to take a look"

Edited by exile360
Removed user's personal info and removed potentially malicious URL
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello and :welcome: :
 
It sounds as if your email account has been hacked (because someone got your email account password or your password is too weak, etc.).
This is not necessarily the same thing as having malware on your local computer.
 
For the email hacking, here is one of MANY, excellent tutorials about how to deal with that: What To Do When Your Email Gets Hacked
And here is information about generating strong passwords (with thanks to @pondus from this post):
http://passwordsgenerator.net
https://identitysafe.norton.com/password-generator
https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

If you think your computer may be infected, then I suggest that you might want to please follow the advice in this pinned topic: Available Assistance For Possibly Infected Computers.
It explains the options for free, expert help >>AND<< the suggested, preliminary steps to expedite the process.
A malware analyst will assist you with looking into your issue.
 
Finally, I have asked the forum staff to edit your post to remove from your public forum post all of the email addresses and other personal information for you and your recipients.  Posting this sort of info in a public forum is one easy way for hackers and other bad folks to obtain this information. :(

 

Thank you,

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
Back to top
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This site uses cookies - We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.