A spam email from my own mac address!

[crazypeter]

I am in the UK and have received a spam email titled "Now I'm so tight in the crotch area" purporting to be from my own mac email address! It appears to have a link to a web page and at the bottom is the address:-
TBDPDAXXKV Company, 946 BHCDMJSP Street, P/O BOX 4453 USA.

Does anyone have advice as to what I should do about this and is it likely that the security of my mac been compromised?

I normally bounce spam but if I do I assume that it will come back to me!

I have now bounced it and "postoffice@mac.com" says "Returned mail: User unknown" and in the header it says "Diagnostic-Code: SMTP;550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias"

 

[old-wiz]

The 'from' address in any e-mail is easily forged by spammers, don't worry about it.

Some years ago at work I tried to tell someone that the 'from' address was meaningless and they didn't believe me, so I went to a Unix box and sent them all mail from 'god@heaven.org' telling them they needed to be saved from sin and inquity and that shut them up.

You can usually get the full headers from an e-mail and track it back to some degree, but it's usually not worth the trouble.

I don't think bouncing spam is a good idea - it shows to someone that you actually read the e-mail and your address is valid.

 

[jive turkey]

Well, that is not a real address so it will get you no where. I am sure they just spoofed your email address. They are probably thinking that if your email program receives an email from you, it will get by spam filters. I'd guess they are using the same technique for other people's email addresses as well.

I doubt seriously it is because your security has been hacked or compromised in some way.

 

[crazypeter]

Thanks. Old-wiz, interestingly I have my emails set to see the full header and the spam email did not have a full header.