Is there anything I can do if email is being spoofed?

[bigjnyc]

So my wife's email was hacked and someone got in and started sending spam emails to all of her contacts asking for money. I had her change all of her passwords and do all of the necessary things to keep them out.

However it appears that they copied all of her contacts and are now sending emails out to them from another email address but spoofing the email to look like its from her.

As you can imagine this is very embarrassing and infuriating for her since she has a lot of people from her professional network on her contacts list. She uses a Yahoo email which she's had for years (I know I know, I've told her numerous times to get rid of Yahoo)

Anyway I am afraid I know the answer to this, but is there anything we can do about her email being spoofed, to minimize the damage at least?

 

[chown33]

There's nothing you or your wife can do to stop someone else from spoofing her email address. You have no control over the sender's computer, nor is there any technical means to have every email relay in the world filter out spoofed emails.

The best you can do is tell all the people in her contact list to ignore email from the Yahoo address, and start using a replacement email address your wife has created on a safer service. In other words, provide an alternative means of contact.

Unfortunately, this means the Yahoo email address will eventually have to be abandoned to the spoofers. Otherwise all the people in her contact list are put in the position of needing to determine which emails from the Yahoo address are real and which ones are fake. That places the burden on the recipients for your wife's wish to continue using the Yahoo account. Many people would consider that burden of distinguishing real from fake as not worthwhile, and simply ignore all received emails.

If your wife doesn't provide a new email address at all, and keeps using only the Yahoo account, then the recipients don't even have an alternative means for maintaining a professional contact with your wife. To me, that seems more likely to undermine a professional relationship, rather than maintain it.

 

[ucfgrad93]

That stinks, @bigjnyc. But like @chown33 said, not much you can do except notify everyone and get her a new email address.

 

[bigjnyc]

There's nothing you or your wife can do to stop someone else from spoofing her email address. You have no control over the sender's computer, nor is there any technical means to have every email relay in the world filter out spoofed emails.

The best you can do is tell all the people in her contact list to ignore email from the Yahoo address, and start using a replacement email address your wife has created on a safer service. In other words, provide an alternative means of contact.

Unfortunately, this means the Yahoo email address will eventually have to be abandoned to the spoofers. Otherwise all the people in her contact list are put in the position of needing to determine which emails from the Yahoo address are real and which ones are fake. That places the burden on the recipients for your wife's wish to continue using the Yahoo account. Many people would consider that burden of distinguishing real from fake as not worthwhile, and simply ignore all received emails.

If your wife doesn't provide a new email address at all, and keeps using only the Yahoo account, then the recipients don't even have an alternative means for maintaining a professional contact with your wife. To me, that seems more likely to undermine a professional relationship, rather than maintain it.

That stinks, @bigjnyc. But like @chown33 said, not much you can do except notify everyone and get her a new email address.

Great thanks for the info! That’s pretty much what I figured but wanted to confirm.