Why are emails being sent from my account to all my contacts and I haven't sent them? Is my computer infected?

There are a number of possible reasons for this.

1. Your email account has been 'hacked'.

It is possible (but unlikely) that someone has 'hacked' into your account and is actually sending them directly from your account. Your account has been 'hacked' if someone else has gained access to it without your knowledge by guessing your password, your secret answers or by some other means.

If you are still able to login to your account then you should change your password, your secret questions and your alternative email address and any other security options that are available to you.

Action: If you know for sure that these spam emails are being sent to your contacts and ONLY your contacts then these could well be what has occurred. You will probably (but not always) see the emails in your Sent folder.

2. You (or someone in your contact list) has had a virus.

It is more likely, however, that your account has NOT been hacked but you are a victim of a virus that has hacked into your (or someone else's!) address book. In fact, it is more likely that you are not infected and that someone or some site that knows your email address is infected. Let me try to explain.

You have a number of email addresses in your account. Let's assume that Fred is one of them and his machine is infected with a virus. You are in his address book and so is Violet (amongst others). You and Violet both know Fred but you don't know Violet. Now the fun starts. The virus sends an email (probably containing the virus itself) to everyone in Fred's address book but the virus picks you (at random) as the sending address!

It looks like you have sent this email to all and sundry and it has nothing to do with you - just the virus on Fred's machine using your details to hide the source of the virus email.

So, that's why and how emails are being sent as if they come from you and, no, your computer is not infected but Fred's is. You can't tell Fred because you don't know it was HIS computer (the virus hid the source address by using your email address).

Action: Unfortunately, in this case there is nothing you can do because it is not a problem with your account. If it persists then the only option is to get a new address and forward emails from the old account to the new one. Tell your friends to ignore any future emails from the old address and mark them as Spam/Junk.

3. Your email address has been 'spoofed'

Email address 'spoofing' is becoming a very popular method of spamming. An email address has been 'spoofed' when spam emails are being sent as if they come from a genuine address. This is particularly powerful when the email is being sent to people who now the person who's address has been spoofed.

The first thing to realise is that the ‘sender’ details on emails can be changed at will: you, as sender, can decide what name and email details will be displayed when your email arrives! So, the bad guys have ‘spoofed’ the email address and are sending emails as if they came from the 'victim'.

This can happen to anyone. The address (along with people in the contact list) may have been included in a distribution list in another email which is why it looked like her contact list had been hacked. The bad guys know there is a good chance that other recipients in the email will know Sonia and are more likely to click the link. This distribution list is nothing more than those addresses that are included in the 'CC' field of emails. You know the ones: joke emails being forwarded time and time again and each time adding more and more valid email addresses. These addresses are like gold to the spammer!

I receive these 'spoofed' emails every now and again. They normally include a one line link to some site or other. I just delete them. The problem is I don't want to add the sender to the Spam Bin because I'll miss any future real emails from my friend. Also, I can't reply to the bad email to let my friedn know in case I'm replying to the bad guy. Unpleasant all round! I ought really to contact my friends and tell them (create a new email and send it or, better, call them). I tend not to do this because the problem frequently goes away over time because the bad guys move on and things return to normal.

Prevention: Use BCC when sending to many people to help protect your contacts (see my article on BCC for more information). This reduces the number of contacts the bad guys have.

Action: If it persists then the only option is to get a new address and forward emails from the old account to the new one. Tell your friends to ignore any future emails from the old address and that they should mark them as Spam/Junk.

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