Daemon failure

[Rose Pink]

I have recently received a couple of these notices but they were for e-mails I never sent and to addresses I do not recognize. Has my account been hijacked to send e-mails or is this another form of phishing? I changed my password today.

 

[Icarus]

There are two possibilities. Sometimes these are trojans (spoofed emails indicating an error) and contain attachments that carry viruses. Other times they just indicate that a spammer has used your email address as the fake sender, and you're getting the bounced emails for bad email addresses they sent their spam to.

There's really nothing to do about them in either case. If they contain attachments, don't open them.

-David

 

[johnmfaeth]

Hi Rose,

Your account is most likely in your full control. The people who send junk mail for Viagra and Breast Enhancers - I always get confused by their statements and think I may need both - take legitimate email addresses and use them as the return address when doing their bulk mailings. They do this to get their messages through corporate email filters who block the emails from a known list of spammer's addresses.

I have this happen about once every six months. The returns will bounce to you for a day or two and then stop. Nothing to worry about, nothing to do.

By the way, a Daemon is Greek mythology was like what we would call an "intelligent angel". This name is used in computing to refer to a software process that is constantly running and keeping watch over things. In this case the Mail Routing Daemon saw that your message was undeliverable as addressed and sent at notification to you.

John

 

[Makai Guy]

Most spam is sent out with false "from" addresses. These address can be obtained by using a list of acquired email addresses, or it could be the result of a virus on somebody's system that sends messages out with "from" addresses found in the infected system's addressbook. Either way, this is called "spoofing" the email address.

While it is possible that you have a virus that is sending out the mail you're asking about, it is much more likely that that mail had its origin somewhere other than on your system. (If it actually had come from your system due to a virus, it probably would have used some address other than yours, found in your addressbook.)

When one of those bogus emails gets sent to an invalid address, the server at the other end bounces it back to what the message indicates was the sender -- in this case you -- even though that person really had nothing to do with the original message.

There's nothing you can do about it. Just delete those returned messages and don't worry about them.

But... DO make sure you have a good antivirus program, keep it up to date, and scan your system just to be sure you're "clean".

 

[Rose Pink]

Thanks Dave & John

Your account is most likely in your full control. The people who send junk mail for Viagra and Breast Enhancers - I always get confused by their statements and think I may need both - take legitimate email addresses and use them as the return address when doing their bulk mailings. They do this to get their messages through corporate email filters who block the emails from a known list of spammer's addresses.

John

First, if you think you (or someone close to you) need breast enhancers, please talk to someone who would like to de-enhance hers. Big bazooooms can be painful.

Second, am I to understand that my e-mail address has been used by spammers? That seems like a sort of identy theft. Even if they have not actually been able to read my mail, they have made others think I am a spammer.

 

[Rose Pink]

Thanks to you too, Doug. You were posting at the same time I was.