Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: WTF? Someone has hijacked my email address!

This is topic WTF? Someone has hijacked my email address! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 06-02-2004, 09:14 PM:

Spam has hit a new low. We're all familier with spammers who spoof the return address, but this guy has changed the return adress to my email address. The really bad part is that he continues to spoof my address when sending spam to others besides myself! Now I get Mailer Deamons daily listing all the failed recipients for a spam email I didn't send, and whats worse, a lot probably do get delivered to people who think I sent it!

Does anyone know how to combat this problem?

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 06-02-2004, 09:23 PM:

Could it be a virus of some sort has gotten to your comp?
dunno... [Eek!]

danny

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 06-02-2004, 09:51 PM:

This happened to me a while back, it stopped after a few days on its own.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-02-2004, 10:39 PM:

It's a virus on somebody ELSE's computer which is going through their address book and using addresses it finds to:

A) Hihack the person's computer and make it a spambot.
B) Propogate the virus.
(Not necessarity in that order.)

When (if) the person figures out they have a virus and they clean it out, the e-mail will stop. Some viruses have expiration dates. IF so, it will stop on its own... maybe to morph into something else.

The best defenses are:

1) Notify people you know who have your e-mail address in their books that they should probably check for viruses. Use your knowledge of people to decuce the culprit. When I get spams on certain addresses that I only give out to relatives/friends I know that I should go to my Mom's house and disinfect her computer.

2) Avoid anything and everything that has to do with Microsoft as much as you possibly can. (i.e.: Reduce your exposure.)

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 06-02-2004, 11:37 PM:

quote: Mr. Stankey
It's a virus on somebody ELSE's computer ...

2) Avoid anything and everything that has to do with Microsoft as much as you possibly can. (i.e.: Reduce your exposure.)

Doesn't matter too much what OS you have since the infected computer belongs to someone else. My cell phone runs on Sun Microsystems' Java and I still (ocassionally) have the same problem with my phone's email address. [Smile]

Anyway... look at the headers and figure out who it is coming from. If you know them, let them know. Otherwise, call their provider and tell them to shut down that person's connection. Cable companies are great for doing this, DSL providers usually aren't too bad, and some of the better dial-up providers will take the time to check their logs if you can give them the exact time that the message was sent and the IP address it came from.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-02-2004, 11:56 PM:

Some (many) spambots cause the infected computer forge the entire header of the message and spoof the IPs. You may be alble to get a partial read on the origin of the message but not always.

Certainly try to find out as much as you can but, if you hit a dead end, you may have to give up. My best bet is deduction. Who has my e-mail address? Who, out of that list, is likely to have a virus without knowing it. I have lots of addresses. Only certain people have a given address for specific reasons.

If one of my "public" addresses gets spammed, I don't give a shit. If it's my "work" address I report it to the IT department and let THEM deal with it. IF it's a "private adderess" it could be any one of, maybe a dozen or two people. If it's my "private-for-family-only" address, it can only be one of about six or eight people. Two or three of them just will NOT get viruses. A couple of them may get a virus and fix it quickly. There are only two people who will get a virus and let it stew on their computer form more than a day or so. I call those people first.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 06-03-2004, 08:33 AM:

I thought stuff like that doesn`t happen to the enlightened Mac users.
I always knew a computer named after a burger is a suspicious thing.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-03-2004, 11:38 AM:

No, it doesn't happen to me. It happens to all the OTHER people I know who DON'T use Macs.

If my address is in their address book and they get hit with a virus, *I* will see the results of its actions as a bunch of e-mails that appear to have come from me but did not.

There are antivirus programs for Macs but:

A) They mostly protect OTHER people who may receive a message from you that has a virus in it. The virus won't affect YOU but your computer can "vector" it. The antivirus keeps you from being a vector.

B) When (notice I said WHEN, not IF) a new Mac virus finally DOES come along, antivirus software won't help you until the virus is disected and a "vaccine" for it is developed. Only after the vaccine is distributed will the program help.

A few weeks ago, there was a report of a Mac OS X virus but it turned out to be nothing more than a "proof-of-concept". No code was ever written. Come to find out that the company who put the word out is a antivirus software developer. It appears to all the world that they were simply trying to drum up business for themselves by using a scare tactic. By this time, I'm sure Apple has come up with a patch for the (supposed) vulnerability.

At this point, I remain watchful but secure in the knowledge that there aren't yet any viruses for OS X. There are a few trojans but no viruses... YET.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-03-2004, 01:13 PM:

So what is the difference between a trojan and a virus? I'll spare the world the obvious condom joke.[av=k]

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 06-03-2004, 01:31 PM:

Thanks for the help everyone.

It seems that the recipients are all within my domain.
I'm ImacMike, and some of the addresses I've bounced spam to are imacmouse, imacnicholas, and imacstraw, all within the mac.com domain. The headers are completely spoofed. If it is a virus on a friends computer, I allready have a few suspects.

But here is what I'm worried has happened. Some spammer got a hold of all of the .mac subscribers and randomly selected my address to send to all the others.

Joe, Trojan horses are malicious programs that are desquised as a harmless program. They require the user to launch them. Viri don't necisarily rely on the user to spread and replicate.