getting returned mail not from who was sent

[Fank]

A couple times recently I sent an email from my .mac account, from my imac, and received this response:

- - -

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

******trungfa2@hotmail.com


Reporting-MTA: dns;COL0-MC2-F8.Col0.hotmail.com
Received-From-MTA: dns;cdptpa-imtalb.mail.rr.com
Arrival-Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:57:19 -0800

Final-Recipient: rfc822;trungfa2@hotmail.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.2.2
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;552 5.2.2 This message is larger than the current system limit or the recipient's mailbox is full. Create a shorter message body or remove attachments and try sending it again.

- - -

THE PROBLEM is, I didn't send any email to that recipient, never ever.

So I reply to 'postmaster@hotmail.com' and of course it gets kicked back to me, but with this message:

postmaster@hotmail.com is an unmonitored account. If you need assistance, please consult our help pages or visit http://postmaster.live.com.

Thank You,
Windows Live Hotmail Staff

- - -

Any ideas on what is going on? I don't feel like emailing trungfa2@hotmail.com as I have no idea who they are, but think it's strange that it is possibly trying to send an email I sent, to someone else, to this strange email address.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Fank

A couple times recently I sent an email from my .mac account, from my imac, and received this response:

- - -

Any ideas on what is going on? I don't feel like emailing trungfa2@hotmail.com as I have no idea who they are, but think it's strange that it is possibly trying to send an email I sent, to someone else, to this strange email address.

It's very likely spam. Don't reply to emails that come from sources you're not familiar with. That only generates more spam.

[Fank]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

It's very likely spam. Don't reply to emails that come from sources you're not familiar with. That only generates more spam.

What's weird though is that these 'spams' show up right after I send an email, like they are in direct response to an email I have just sent.

[samh]

Originally Posted by Fank

What's weird though is that these 'spams' show up right after I send an email, like they are in direct response to an email I have just sent.

There are a few possibilities. One is that a spammer has gotten ahold of your email address and is just spoofing his/her own from address. Then when the messages bounces, it's bouncing to you.

The other is that your account has been compromised and somebody is actually sending these messages through your account on your behalf, and they are bouncing and being returned to you.

Change your email password and see if the problem continues. If it clears up, I would change the password of every account you can think of.

[Fank]

Originally Posted by samh

There are a few possibilities. One is that a spammer has gotten ahold of your email address and is just spoofing his/her own from address. Then when the messages bounces, it's bouncing to you.

The other is that your account has been compromised and somebody is actually sending these messages through your account on your behalf, and they are bouncing and being returned to you.

Change your email password and see if the problem continues. If it clears up, I would change the password of every account you can think of.

Sam, thanks for the suggestions; I'm leaning on someone spoofing, now I have to remember how to change email password. I'm in 10.6.8 with an older dual core 2 iMac. Never activated icloud. I went into mail, clicked on the account and information; it shows name and password but I can't see how to change it. I put a new password in and saved it, then quit mac.mail with it set to prompt for password. It wouldn't accept the new password, only the previous one.

[Fank]

In my setup, the answer is to reset my AppleID, which I have now done.

If I get more 'returned mail' announcements I will assume they spoofed. It's only happened a couple times in the past, but just recently. Hoping the reset stopped it.

Found my answer by searching forums here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1374878