lorryw Report post Posted April 18, 2010 We have just returned from a short break. Turned on the computer and saw we had 300 unread messages. They are all "unable to deliver". My sister rang and has had 2 emails from me advertising viagra! I am not sure what to do or why and how it happened . Any help/explanations gratefully recieved. Thanks (a bit worried about using the flipping thing now) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Special_talent123 Report post Posted April 18, 2010 right there is 2 things you can do. you can either close the account and make a new account or change your password to something harder. also i would scan your computer for any viruses you are having Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chris54 Report post Posted April 18, 2010 Hotmail are aware that this is happening, but you should still report it to them.(It is not only hotmail, it is happening to all email providers) Changing your pass word wont make any difference as it is hotmail its self that is being hacked into which bypasses individual account security(Pass words). It is unlikely to cause you any problems other than the inconvenience it courses to you and others. But a timely reminder to never send any confidential information by email. Emails are not secure. I have been told that these emails are being sent from over seas. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zenemu Report post Posted April 20, 2010 (edited) I know this isn't a lot of use now, but it should be said anyway. Web based email shouldn't be used as your main email account. Googlemain, Yahoo and especially HotMail are all very very easy to hack, and these services themselves are often subject to various types of attack, which is where a lot of the spam comes from. It is often kindof a bragging rights thing with various crackers to see who can cause as much disruption as possible to these services. This is where your spam is coming from. Hotmail for example is based across 1000+ servers and if you haven't had this happen before, it is purely pot luck as to which server your account is based on. These services suffer from dozens of successful attacks every year. I will also add that hotmail particularly has an open telnet exploit which has never been closed (after nearly 15 years) and it allows a cracker to en masses fake emails from any users account to any other users account, and various worm viruses take advantage of this vulnerability. These kinds of services are fine for unimportant stuff, newsletters ect, but NEVER keep anything sensitive on these servers. You can't guarantee that your infromation is safe, and these companies certainly don't make any ironclad promises in that reguard. Zen Edited April 20, 2010 by zenemu Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trekster Report post Posted April 20, 2010 ive had my a/c hacked as well but it is hard to avoid. If you get emails sent to you via the cc function you are likely to get hacked. i have kindly requested that i get sent group emails via the bcc function but people dont always respect this. My googlemail a/c has an excellent spam folder but im unable to report spam when it's a scam. Wondering if theres a googlemail customer services that could help me? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trekster Report post Posted April 20, 2010 right there is 2 things you can do. you can either close the account and make a new account or change your password to something harder. also i would scan your computer for any viruses you are having Good point as viruses can be sent with "unable to deliver" messages (which is why i just delete them and never open them. Im not sure if changing the password would make much difference but i will try it if this happens again to me. Another thing is to download a program like "spybot search and destroy" as that will find spyware (which is how hackers can view your browsing history and pc) and use it regularly to get rid of the rubbish! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites