Spam question

[johngreen]

I know that it is easy and common for the sender name on an email to be changed to anything a spammer might want without this necessarily having anything to do with the person named as the sender.

I have however recently received an email into my more generally used email account from my rarely used Yahoo email account and on looking discover that spam has been sent to the entire contacts list actually using the Yahoo account – ie the spam emails are listed in the Yahoo account ‘sent’ folder.

I am aware of no mishaps within my generally used email accounts although I suspect my details have been farmed from the computer of an acquaintance as previously rare spam has suddenly and simultaneously started appearing in my various email addresses recently.

Is such a hijacking of a Yahoo account a common event and is there a way of preventing such misuses re occurring? And are there other implications?
I have removed the entire contacts list from the email account so that even if it is so abused again, it will have no one to send to.

Thanks.

jg

[390cruise]

My daily used hotmail account sent a spam to every one in my address book.

I found out one hour later by which time the address book had disappeared never to return, all E mails inbound to that account never arrive nor does the mass of junk that used to land in that account every day!! One month has passed still no change......Has the account been cloned?

390

[Mike-Bracknell]

If you suddenly find emails sent to everyone in your address book, you have to suspect that on one or more computers where your address book is stored you have had a virus farm your address book and start sending out to the addresses.

Pretty simple to sort locally by detecting and removing the virus, however since it was sending out with those email addresses it's most probably registered them somewhere on the internet as a legitimate email address and you'll forever more be plagued with emails to it. You may be lucky and removing the virus kills it, but it's the luck of the draw.

[johngreen]

Thanks Mike Bracknell.
The curiosity is – or rather was - that the spammed address book is not on my computer but somewhere in the bowels of Yahoo. It is only that contact list that has been accessed and abused. The computer I normally use is kept well updated and protected and demonstrates no signs of infection or problems.

On the morning of seeking the wise counsel of the Pprune expertise I was in a rush and failed to find any explanation in a brief Google, however, I have since found that this is not such an unusual problem and is apparently caused by hackers somehow gaining the password to the relevant Yahoo, Hotmail or similar accounts.
Quite how that is done I did not establish though it would seem to be a relatively easy task and does not necessarily infer that any user computer has also been invaded. Famous last words…

Having established that much, I take the opportunity to convey my somewhat Arabic influenced affections to the spamming community; May your balls turn square and fester slowly from the edges inwards.

jg