Returned Emails that I did not send

[ghoti]

Virus.

[Viva]

There have been extensions to the email protocol for about 5 years to prevent this. Ask your email administrator to configure your mail domain for SPF and DKIM. The spammers will normally give up using your address pretty soon after that.

It has,but people need to implement it for it to actually work

Not sure what can be done to prevent this, but the reason it can happen is because most outgoing mail servers don't require any sort of authentication, whereas most incoming mail servers do. So, for example if my ISP is Cybersmart i can use any email address to send an email with as long as I use the smtp.cybersmart.co.za outgoing server.

Thanks for the explanation. I however only use Gmail. Will spammers by able to use my address to send their spam?

[ghoti]

Do you have your gmail setup in an email program?

[zaspamspotters]

Not sure what can be done to prevent this, but the reason it can happen is because most outgoing mail servers don't require any sort of authentication, whereas most incoming mail servers do. So, for example if my ISP is Cybersmart i can use any email address to send an email with as long as I use the smtp.cybersmart.co.za outgoing server.

One would hope that the administrator/s of that server also turned on sender verification to avoid you sending email as naughty@santa.com .

[Viva]

Do you have your gmail setup in an email program?

Nope, I use the web interface and gmail on Android.

[CodeMaster]

Happened to one of the email addresses on our company domain as well.
I had set default passwords, and sent out instructions on how the password should be immediately changed.
Seems one of the directors decided to ignore the email, only to be flooded.
Changed the password, and deleted all offending mail. Been fine since then.

[Tim the Techxpert]

Hi There,
First thing is to make sure that you have no malware on your PC.
Secondly as has been said above implement the SPF
Thirdly change your password to a complex one and keep changing it regularly.

All these should reduce the incidence of the problem for you.

Regards

Tim

[Eddie D]

Yip, change your password.. I know its strange, but it works.

[waynehooper]

I agree. Change your ADSL login password as well as your email password. Most of the time these are the same, and yours may have been compromised. Someone suggested this to me and I laughed it off at first. Decided to try it, and the messages stopped instantly.