How does someone spoof my real name to a fake email address and then send it to my wife's email account? This is not the first time this has happened. I do have a yahoo address, but NEVER use the thing.
Email Scam Help
- Thread starter Twobrothersbusa
- Start date
Argilbertson
Registered
They just enter your name into the personal information, and then when they send email, it shows up with that header info. Anyone can do that technically, as you can generally enter anything you want in those fields; I think my email comes up as "Just Me" when I send it from one of my accounts.
It's actually very easy to manipulate email addresses, I would definitely cover up your wife's email on the above posting so she doesn't get burdened with more emails
But how do they end up sending my name to my wifes email account? Has my yahoo account been hacked and had my info stolen?
I agree. Most of the people on here SEEM legit. But they most definitely are NOT too legit to quit... Just sayin
lil charlie
Registered
You've been hacked...its just your address book. Changer your password and you're good to go.
They actually somehow get your password, then spam everyone in your address book. Log in, change your password, then log out.
Do this again for a couple days in a row.
Be careful the links you click on. They might seem legit but a lot are not nowadays. Lets say if a site I normally visit sends me an email saying I need to log into my account to take of something and includes a link, I always close that email and log into the site itself that I am familiar with. The false link can save and transmit your log in information.
Also, I saw on the news the other day that fake phishing links are taking over the top search results on Google and other search engines. It may look like a site you normally visit, but it is actually stealing your log in information when you put it in the fields.
Just a couple thoughts...you can never be too careful these days with everything getting the "it's okay, I do this every day" comfort level.
Also, I saw on the news the other day that fake phishing links are taking over the top search results on Google and other search engines. It may look like a site you normally visit, but it is actually stealing your log in information when you put it in the fields.
Just a couple thoughts...you can never be too careful these days with everything getting the "it's okay, I do this every day" comfort level.
SoCal Blur
Registered
You may also have a keylogger trojan virus on your pc. It can capture your email addresses and passwords when you log into your online email accounts. You should run something like Malwarebytes to scan your PC and make sure you are clean. Otherwise, even changing your password won't help for long.
Skydyvyr
Registered
While one of the explanations for this could be that your Yahoo acct was (or currently is) accessed by spammers, it is more likely that someone else who has both both your wife's and your email in their address book has been hacked. While changing your password is always wise, it may not resolve anything.
One of the tactics that spammers use is to choose one of the addresses in someone's address book to send to everyone else in that same address book. This way, it becomes very difficult to identify the breach.
As has been mentioned by others already, it is trivial to fake any email address in the 'from' field.
--Sky
One of the tactics that spammers use is to choose one of the addresses in someone's address book to send to everyone else in that same address book. This way, it becomes very difficult to identify the breach.
As has been mentioned by others already, it is trivial to fake any email address in the 'from' field.
--Sky
It can be done. At least Sandy was wise enough to not click on a link that has a .ru ending 
I doubt it's YOUR account that's been hacked; more likely someone who has your address in their contacts has been compromised (which means there's not much you can do about it). But, just in case, go change that password immediately. And run Malwarebytes on all your machines.
One of my coworkers brought me an interesting situation the other day. He was installing a printer at a school, and it was having issues. So they get the tech guy in there, who looks at it about 2 minutes, runs something (I suspect malwarebytes) and says "you have 2 viruses and 3 trojans". The user seems shocked because he doesn't connect to the internet with that machine.
But, what he forgot was that people were bringing in USB drives to use on that machine, and those USB drives were infected. In fact, it infected the USB Drive of my coworker...the tech cleaned his drives (and to be sure, I scanned EVERYTHING he had when he got back to work) and the issue cleared up.
HINT: When your machine starts unexplicably bogging down, or doing weird things, it's most likely INFECTED. A good antivirus strategy using multiple layers of protection (I use Symantec Endpont and Malwarebytes) can really help keep you safe, but NOTHING works better than the thing between your ears that keeps you from clicking on that weird link or email in the first place.
I doubt it's YOUR account that's been hacked; more likely someone who has your address in their contacts has been compromised (which means there's not much you can do about it). But, just in case, go change that password immediately. And run Malwarebytes on all your machines.
One of my coworkers brought me an interesting situation the other day. He was installing a printer at a school, and it was having issues. So they get the tech guy in there, who looks at it about 2 minutes, runs something (I suspect malwarebytes) and says "you have 2 viruses and 3 trojans". The user seems shocked because he doesn't connect to the internet with that machine.
But, what he forgot was that people were bringing in USB drives to use on that machine, and those USB drives were infected. In fact, it infected the USB Drive of my coworker...the tech cleaned his drives (and to be sure, I scanned EVERYTHING he had when he got back to work) and the issue cleared up.
HINT: When your machine starts unexplicably bogging down, or doing weird things, it's most likely INFECTED. A good antivirus strategy using multiple layers of protection (I use Symantec Endpont and Malwarebytes) can really help keep you safe, but NOTHING works better than the thing between your ears that keeps you from clicking on that weird link or email in the first place.
The virus trojan thing should not be a problem. Regular scans and such show no virus stuff going on.
Running MS Security Essentials on two and McAffe on the Win8 box until the free period expires.
Running MS Security Essentials on two and McAffe on the Win8 box until the free period expires.
I don't necessarily think that your email account has been 'hacked'. Rather, you have (or had) something on your machine that sent your address book to a spammer...they are using that information to send emails out.
Run your antivirus software to scan your machine. Also, you can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (free) and run it to scan for nasties...
Run your antivirus software to scan your machine. Also, you can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (free) and run it to scan for nasties...
I run a pretty tight ship with the anti virus stuff. Not sure where this stuff is coming from. I have changed my yahoo account PW, but at this point I guess all the email addresses are out there anyway.
Argilbertson
Registered
This is NOT a hacked account - a botted or hacked account will show your email address as the sender, since they actually just use your own account to forward their spam mails...
Agree. If you note the header, it's got your name but not your email account...it's actually a pretty obvious and low-tech technique as a lot of people will click on that link just because they see your name as sender without noticing the address.
Just saying that cleaning your machine should be a regular chore just like sweeping the floor.
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