How can I tell if someone stole my email address?

I am hoping someone here can help me. Here is the problem.

In the past 20-30 minutes I have gotten well over 100 emails to my main email address (not a yahoo, hotmail etc email). They all are like returned emails saying something I sent was undeliverable etc those Daemon (or however it's spelled) type emails, or I am getting out of office replies.

The thing is, I haven't sent any of these emails.

I am guessing one of two things happened.

1 - Someone hacked into my computer and is using my email to send all this crap.

2 - Some has forged the email header they are sending and using my email as a return address.

Is there anything I can do to stop this aside from changing my email address?

I am running Windows XP and using Outlook.

I am scanning my computer right now for viruses and spyware with Norton 360, but beyond that I have no idea what to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

 

I would call your service provider ASAP

changing your Email may be the only option

 

I'll give them a call on Monday, Zo.

In the mean time it seems that the flow of these emails has largely stopped. I have only gotten about 50 today (versus well over 300 last night) and all but about 5 f the 50 I got today were this morning.

It seems like the spammers have moved away from my email address...

That was a serious pain in the ass though.

 

good luck

your service provider can probably pin point the problem

 

Message for Cinch
____________

You need to download these safe security programs on your
computer (all are free):
1. Spybot...(be sure to uncheck teatime
during the download process).
2. Avira__it's anti-virus.
3. Truecrypt__a strong security program.
4. Comodo__powerful firewall (even though you'll
see several menu popups the first month, they go
away and you won't be bothered after this program
gets to know you). It's highly recommended !!
You can find these free downloads on the
internet.

NOTE: I was fortunate to meet a high-tech security
manager for a large corporation ( he freelances for
several other corporations and makes lots of money )
who turned me on to the above programs. He told me
the FBI would not be able to hack into any computer
after these downloads were on that computer.

P.S. It took me around 3 hours to download all
4 programs but you may be able to work faster.
I also checked out all 4 programs on the internet
before downloading to make sure they were safe
(I trusted the high-tech security manager's suggestions
but I still had to check it out for myself).
___________________________________________________
Signed: Robert Singletary__Sunday April 27, 2008__12:20 A.M.
(eastern standard time) USA

 

In response to what looks like a commercial spam/advertising reply.

Spybot.. works ok, but needs adaware also to do a reasonable job. AVG antispyware performs better all round.

Avira .. Mixed reviews. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2129688,00.asp Generally no better, if in some cases worse than avast home or avg home. My preference is avast. Take your pick.. try both for a while, they are free.

Comodo firewall.. gets in your face all the time while letting all the baddies in. It is exploited by any trojan which attacks firewall or running processes via task manager (all the win32 variants)
Security experts (not paid reviewers) have trashed this application time and time again. GRC.com have torn holes in it. Home pc's don't need firewalls.. windows built in thing is more than adequate for 99% of home users.

Truecrypt.. whatever. It doesn't protect you from direct hacking attempts, and would have no effect whatsoever against an attack on your email settings within your pc.. rootkits are way above encryption protocols.. They run as authorised processes within your system and have access to all your encryption keys....
Chances are you have picked up a rootkit/keylogger/mailer bot trojan from somewhere, or nothing at all, as the attack may well have been against your isp's mailserver.. surf a lot of warez/pr0n sites, or hit a site that takes you to a blank page with "image server" written on a clear page?
Use at your choice, while understanding that it really only protects you from data theft in more of a physical way. Do you have personal financial/sensitive information on your comp? You shouldn't really. Malware running on your system will still have access to everything.

Now about this email. More than likely your email has turned up on a spam list somewhere. Some people regularly run general attacks (via email address and brute force password cracking) against ISP email accounts. have you thought that the solution could be as easy as changing your email password to something more secure? If there is no trace of these emails being sent in either your mail log, your outbox or sent box it isn't you but forgery of your headers.. There is also malware which installs itself and then starts firing email at everybody in your address book, or from a remotely stored list (spambot network). There has been one of these type attacks recently using the MSN chat clients.
Another way this kind of thing happens which doesn't actually affect you (apart from all the spam bounces) is for somebody to set up a mailserver and spoof your headers. http://virusbusters.itcs.umich.edu//forged_from.html Obviously a reply to email purportedly sent by you will return to you. You haven't sent it, and it has nothing to do with either your machine or your isp. I know people who use this kind of attack to annoy people. Try sending mail from yoir account to some fake email locations (numtynutz18976@invalidco.net) is a good test address.. See where the bounces come from.

A few insights from a spambot herder..........

Direct remote hacking is very rare. It is usually somebody who has access to your hardware rather than a hacker sitting at home. They go after businesses with valuable customer data/credit card details etc. not home users. It isn't worth the time.

Run good antivirus regularly
Run good antispyware on the same schedule.. use a spyware live shield (avast does a great job here)
Check for strange processes running at startup

Run HJT (see windows malware/virus section for guide) and look for odd things, or post in the place where all the other scans are.

 

maybe thats why he freelances LOL!
-----------------------
well if your looking for free internet security then go here
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/292257

i have several email accounts, one i use for subscriptions that i know will be spamed, the other for friends and family, and most importantly one for business, school and purely for important people,.....i think its important never to give away your main email to kids or irresponsible people that might use it on websites rather then their own......i think the soundest thing to do is to change your email however painful that might be

best of luck
-tripplite

 

After a full system malware scan of course XD

 

I agree with Jan thoses are all just ok programs.

a must have is a hardware Firewall/router for you're first line of protection!

 

the threat of actually being hacked is nil, most commercial virus protect services will say "hacker successfully stopped from accessing personal information" when alls that happened was a cookie was deleted lol .......hacker go after websites and large databases not some smucks hdd in boston lol

Cinch -can you post a list of your processes?

just ticking away......
-tripplite

 

Sorry to say it, but I just have to: that "security manager" is an idiot. I would cease contact with him and let Darwin take over.

 

I am not the most computer literate person (certainly no where near most of you guys here) what do you me a list of the processes?

In the past few days I haven't gotten nearly the swarm I did on sat. but I am still getting some. The tech guy at my ISP was anything but helpful... I think I may have more computer knowledge than he does... and that is not saying much.

 

moving the thread would be a very good idea

......hit alt+ctrl+delete and go to the processed area, either copy them
or take a screen shot....are you still getting junk mail thrown your way? have you changed email?

 

Message for Auslander
_________________

I trust your opinion.....
So, what security program (free download)
or downloads do you recommend ??

________________________________________________
Signed: Robert Singletary__Sunday May 4, 2008__5:09 P.M.
(eastern standard time) USA

 

Purely security, as in besides anti-spyware and anti-virus programs? I am behind a large university firewall, and thus only use ZoneAlarm firewall, which is free; I use the non-free firewall, which also includes anti-all-sorts-of-crap stuff.

*edit*
Beyond that, I don't really use anything else. Hackers don't really target individuals, and if they do, there's not too much else you can do against them if you're not a programmer, except use a good firewall. To protect personal information from hacker exploitation, keep it on a machine not connected to any kind of network.

 

Message for Auslander
_________________

Thanks for your rapid response !!

I just finished reading all 9 pages of the thread
suggested by tripplite (27, April 2008 @09:54 on this thread) regarding security programs. Now I'm convinced more than ever
that the " security manager " I met recently gave me
the correct information. You may want to read the
same thread suggested by tripplite ( it's very helpful !! ).

___________________________________________________
Signed: Robert Singletary__Sunday May 4, 2008__7:36 P.M.
(eastern standard time) USA

 

free internet security works very well....
unlike commercial protection that just pics up a cookie and claims it to be a virus lol!

the best thing to do is to stay away from bad websites, check your processes list often+ scan regularly, and keep in touch with the latest versions of anti-virus!

(and of course use the fox)
-tripplite

 

Message for tripplite
__________________

Just thought I'd present a gift to you for turning
me on to that great 9 page thread about security
programs.
Here's the link:
http://turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/chess.html
" Thinking Machine 4 "
It's fascinating to see all the possible chess moves
light up in animation. I've played many times against
my computer and the best I could do was a draw.

NOTE: Martin Wattenberg with Marek Walczak invented
" Time Machine 4 " .....so, here's the link to
learn more about them:
http://www.bewitched.com/art.html

Here's another link I just found:
http://cubo.cc/
After you arrive, move your cursor around to see
Creepy Girl from MOTIONPORTRAIT do her thing for you
(this one will bring a smile to your face).

__________________________________________________
Signed: Robert Singletary__Monday May 5, 2008__2:37 A.M.
(eastern standard time) USA

 

ya know a awhile back on AD a member helped me...i was used to a karma system of some sort but there wasn't...so at any rate i passed him some cool links via PM and expressed my thanks....and guess what? he called me a n00b and was a complete a$$.....kool links, will look at them after dinner

here is a great tool btw......it allows windows user to kill a process and stop it from regenerating itself under different labels and such......

great for getting rid of malware/spyware by first stopping its effect then deleting it off the HDD, since it isn't running it can't stump the virus scanner and you can delete the application data without getting an error XD....

only really works for those annoying low level bugs like wintouch.exe and such but its still a great app
http://orangelampsoftware.com/products_killprocess.php

best of luck!
btw hows its going cinch? we all set?
-tripplite