My email was Hijacked - What to do?

[OptimaDomains]

Hi everyone,

I think some hackers are using my email domain to spam people. Im getting a bunch of returned emails in my inbox which I have no idea where they are from.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

 

[Peter]

it is possible that your address has not been hacked and that they have simply changed the reply to address which is very easy to do. Effectively they have spoofed your address.

There is nothing you can really do about it apart from changing your email address.

 

[swimjenni]

I would suggest changing all your passwords just to be on the safe side. It could be like Peter said and just put your email in the reply to address but you never know.

 

[OptimaDomains]

I assuming people will start reporting my domain for spam. Is there any danger that my domain will be shut down or penalized for this?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Kate]

It has nothing to do with your E-mail address being compromised.
It is very easy to impersonate anyone with E-mail. I myself get several returned mails every day, which I never wrote in the first place.
To trace spam you receive you need to check the headers of the E-mail, which will usually reveal the originating IP etc.
You may consider adding a SPF record to your domain, if you have your own domain for E-mail:
http://www.openspf.org/

 

[jeter4982]

Hi everyone,

I think some hackers are using my email domain to spam people. Im getting a bunch of returned emails in my inbox which I have no idea where they are from.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

This is interesting...I just began to receive the same emails. I am almost positive my mail server has not been compromised, so I just tossed it away as some spam. I just hope users aren't associating my domain name with spam now.

Tom

 

[PolurNET]

It's normal, don't be too concerned. It can happen every once in a while. If you have spamassassin or similar settings, enable it. Disable any catchall email addresses. Also, you should setup filters so that the annoying email goes directly to :fail: or your spam box.

I also suggest reporting it at spamcop.net; they have a reporting tool that also analyzes headers of the emails and will report it to appropriate ISPs

 

[maximum]

It has nothing to do with your E-mail address being compromised.
It is very easy to impersonate anyone with E-mail. I myself get several returned mails every day, which I never wrote in the first place.
To trace spam you receive you need to check the headers of the E-mail, which will usually reveal the originating IP etc.
You may consider adding a SPF record to your domain, if you have your own domain for E-mail:
http://www.openspf.org/

VERY GOOD advice :imho: Many of the biggest ISP's and email-service providers do a check of incoming email for SPF records. Basically, it says this email claims to come from [email protected], do a lookup of thedomain.com, send a check to its servers - does this server have an SPF-record stating that this senders IP# (would be valid for the server's IP#'s, also, if email originated fom the server) is a valid sender IP# for emails from this domain? IF an SPF record exists for the domain on the server, and the IP# is not one listed as valid for the server or that domain, per the SPF record, then this must be spam or fake...treat accordingly. Works to stop alot of this problem. And, should you ever get blacklisted, it helps your case to get unlisted, by showing you are trying to prevent such and that you knew spammers were trying to use your domain for it.

A good example of this working..A recent email I recieved to Gmail. Its header had the following:

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.mailengine1.com designates xx.xx.xx.194 as permitted sender)

xxxxxx - I blocked-out fo obvious reasons

 

[OptimaDomains]

Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[dna]

When your email is returned you want to click on VIEW and SOURCE on your browser.
This will show you who the email really is from.
If your server really is sending out emails under your name,
you should change your hosting company.

 

[daboss]

better perform a scan of your laptop/desktop for viruses and malware/spyware. it could be that a trojan has entered your machine and is sending out emails from your machine. better be safe than sorry...