Hijacked email

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 26 Jun 2010 7:47 am

I have att email, seems I am sending out Viagra adds...what to do?? Im a Mac user

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 26 Jun 2010 7:55 am

What makes you think your Mac is sending out spam?

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 26 Jun 2010 8:04 am

two friends asked me about it, they got a email from me with link to a sight I didn't send.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 26 Jun 2010 8:20 am

I got one a couple hours ago. Such a deal on Viagra! Oops, I just checked it again and the page won't load. Oh, well...

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 26 Jun 2010 12:50 pm

David Wright wrote:two friends asked me about it, they got a email from me with link to a sight I didn't send.

Precisely! You didn't send it and neither did your MacIntosh computer. However, one of your contacts has a Windows computer that is infected with email harvesting malware. Their PC is probably part of a spam Botnet. They had your email name and account details in their address book or contacts list and it was sent home to a spam database. The spammers then sell their harvested email accounts on CDs, by the million names, to others who rent Botnets to send spam for pharmaceuticals, fake diplomas, counterfeit watches and bogus male enhancement products.

Your stolen email details are forged as the sender in some of the spams sent by the rented out Botnet.

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 26 Jun 2010 4:07 pm

What is this??
A week or so ago, I got the usual newsletter from Bobbe Seymour ...on the usual day of the week. By the address- and subject line it was Bobbe for sure. When I clicked to open it, a spam mail for Viagra appeared in the body of the message...no newsletter. Has Bobbe's or my email been hijacked? This rings of something different than a regular hijack.

The next newsletter from Bobbe 3 days later was A-ok.

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 27 Jun 2010 3:20 am

well, I changed my pass word , hope that helps fix it...

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Jun 2010 8:46 am

Bent Romnes wrote:What is this??
A week or so ago, I got the usual newsletter from Bobbe Seymour ...on the usual day of the week. By the address- and subject line it was Bobbe for sure. When I clicked to open it, a spam mail for Viagra appeared in the body of the message...no newsletter. Has Bobbe's or my email been hijacked? This rings of something different than a regular hijack.

The next newsletter from Bobbe 3 days later was A-ok.

Spammers have performed a Joe Job on Bobbe's email list. You should contact him and let him know. He should check all of his and his store's computers for Spambots and keyloggers.

Tell Bobbe to contact me if he needs assistance tracking this down.

This same thing happened to a friend of mine. He frequently sends group emails and his PC was infected. A harvester component harvested all recognizable email addresses and the names used by the senders. Then, the bot sent links to malware to each recipient, in a group mailing, using a plain text CC list, with a subject including the name of my friend.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 27 Jun 2010 9:37 am

I wish people would quit forwarding jokes to me and all their other friends with all the email addresses visible. This would help to keep things like this from happening.
BTW, that link I got from David yesterday is back up, and it's a redirect.

well, I changed my pass word , hope that helps fix it...

Since you're able to change your password, that shows that your email account hasn't been compromised (right, Wiz?), so it probably won't do anything about this situation. But it's still a good idea to change passwords every once in a while.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Jun 2010 10:57 am

A CC email group list is a spammer's delight. Some contain over 100 active email addresses and common names. Most spam databases use account details stolen by harvesters on infected PCs that are in Botnets.

Chuck Hall · Post by **Chuck Hall** » 6 Jul 2010 7:05 pm

What about BCC

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 6 Jul 2010 7:10 pm

What about BCC

That's the way to do it.

Steve Alonzo Walker · Post by **Steve Alonzo Walker** » 7 Jul 2010 2:45 am

My Hotmail was hacked on July5th. I filled out a form from Microsoft about this and they sent me a reset for my password and now i'm back in control.