Hi Jim - your e-mail address has been hacked and used to send links to threatened web sites... Thought this was the safest way of warning you. Roger Mepstead
Registered: 06/01/98
Posts: 6483
Loc: Ventura CA USA
Actually it doesn't really mean his email address has been hacked. All it means is his address has been harvested and used as a reply to address on bad email. I have had those sort of emails to myself looking like they are from myself ... but they aren't. No hacking is required to make an email look like it has come from an address that it didn't really. There is not a darned thing we can do to stop it either. People just have to be wary when they get emails that seem to come from people they know that don't look like the sort of email they would expect from them. If it is a link or file attachment and looks suspicious always email them back and check they really sent it. It is always very easy to recognize these fake emails.
Because my email address is on the bottom of all pages here at Synth Zone it has been getting harvested for years now.
You can see for yourself how easy it is. In whatever email program you use to send email just change the "Reply To" address to be anything you want and any email will appear to come from that address.
Registered: 06/01/98
Posts: 6483
Loc: Ventura CA USA
The other possibility is that his PC has picked up a virus or trojan that is silently sending out email messages to people in his address book which would explain why you both received these emails. He should really scan his computer with an anti virus program in case that has happened.
Registered: 08/29/05
Posts: 91
Loc: Sebring, Florida, USA
Sorry for the inconvenience to everyone. I've changed my password and that seems to have stopped the problem. Also did an AV scan and found some "baddies". Just as a general aside, I would NEVER send an email with just a link as the entire subject, there would always be a message to you. Should you ever receive anything like this again (from me or anyone else) either delete it or email the sender asking if they did send it. You'd think that people would have better things to do with their time.
Registered: 01/02/00
Posts: 3781
Loc: San Jose, California
I use mail washer to preview all my emails from all my lists and I can see what they are before I download them from the server into my email program. I can always tell when it is a forged header and just mark it as spam and it is deleted from the server and never sees my computer. Bebop