Am I sending spam?

[LudwigVan]

Hi, I received a weird message today.

It came from postmaster@mail.hotmail.com


Here it goes:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

*one of my hotmail contact*






From: *my hotmail adress*
To: *a few of my contacts*
Subject:
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 16:12:40 -0400



*spam link*



It came with a weird linked file.

Now I've heard about spoofing, but the fact that there are my contacts' adresses on the message worries me a bit.

This is the first and only time I've ever received such a message, and nothing has led me to believe that I would unknowingly send spam before.

I changed my hotmail password just to be sure.

I use leopard.


What is my problem?

Thanks


Edit: Important detail: there's nothing wrong in my outbook. If this is the work of a hacker, he is very concious about not leaving any trace of his mischiefs.

 

[LudwigVan]

Ok I was told that I have sent one spam mail.

As I said I just changed my password. What else can I do and is it dangerous?

 

[GGJstudios]

Ok I was told that I have sent one spam mail.

As I said I just changed my password. What else can I do and is it dangerous?

Someone likely just hacked your email password. It's not dangerous... just a nuisance, and it happens to hotmail accounts all the time. Change your password to something complex, using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. You might also consider switching to a Gmail address. Anything is better than hotmail.

 

[LudwigVan]

Someone likely just hacked your email password. It's not dangerous... just a nuisance, and it happens to hotmail accounts all the time. Change your password to something complex, using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. You might also consider switching to a Gmail address. Anything is better than hotmail.

Can it be virus related? I don't recall clicking any suspicious link.

Also, is my personal data at risk?

What can I do to stop it?

 

[Mal]

Unless you use a PC, it cannot be virus related, as there are no viruses currently for the Mac. Your personal data is not compromised, nor did anyone gain access to your computer in any way. They may have gained access to your email address, or they may simply have sent out an email with your address as the return email, which would generate those messages, and could make others think the messages were coming from you. Other than making sure you have a new, strong password on the email account, you can't do anything, but there's no risk to you.

jW

 

[r0k]

There is another possibility. Somebody spoofed your email address. They sent from pirate@somespamdomain.somethingorother but they set the from field to your hotmail email address. This way they are hoping somebody clicks on their spammy links before thinking about it. It's always a good idea to change your password from time to time but it's unlikely your account has been hacked. When their spam bounces, you get the bounce messages because they lied and said the email was from you.

I know somebody whose yahoo account was hacked. Some spammer sent phishing emails from her account. We know because when we regained control of her account some noob replied to the spam WITH THEIR LOGIN and PASSWORD. Yes people are just plain gullible.

Change your password to something you can remember that is not in the dictionary. Toss in some numbers, caps and special characters if you are allowed to. 12 characters is a nice length. Something like I-like5LemonBagels! is very hard to crack but very fast to type and easy to remember. Don't bother with those password generators that stick you with stuff like ]&L@Jj_#$c7 because you will wind up either forgetting it, or writing it down and somebody gets in anyway.

 

[GGJstudios]

Can it be virus related? I don't recall clicking any suspicious link.

I already explained that it's simply a matter of your email account being hacked. It has nothing to do with your computer at all, and could have happened even if you didn't own a computer.

Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

Mac Virus/Malware Info​