Help - Receiving 'Undelivered Mail'

[alisonofcoalway]

Hi

Don't know if anyone else has suffered from this problem. I am receiving loads of 'Undelivered Mail'.
I've been through my IP's help pages and I am now having to email out to the originating IP's with copies of the headers.
Since 22.10 I have looked up and sent out 90 emails.

Has anyone else been hijacked like this - my antivirus and internet security have found no viruses thank goodness.

I'm wondering whether just to ignore them and delete but unless I can solve the problem I will be receiving 20 - 30 + emails a day.- its a real pain.

any ideas gratefully received

Alison

[Anichka54]

Hi

Don't know if anyone else has suffered from this problem. I am receiving loads of 'Undelivered Mail'.
I've been through my IP's help pages and I am now having to email out to the originating IP's with copies of the headers.
Since 22.10 I have looked up and sent out 90 emails.

Has anyone else been hijacked like this - my antivirus and internet security have found no viruses thank goodness.

I'm wondering whether just to ignore them and delete but unless I can solve the problem I will be receiving 20 - 30 + emails a day.- its a real pain.

any ideas gratefully received

Alison

Hi, if these are emails that you haven't sent yourself, it sounds like someone has got into your email server, delete them all & then change your password, it's recommended that you should change your password about every 2 months.
Please let us know if you manage to get it sorted, good luck.

[damian_steele]

If your email address has been compromised at some time (added to a virus list or spam list) then it is probable that your details are listed as either the originator or the reply address for rubbish being sent by someone else, to someone else. This means that if the spammer, for example, sends out four thousand emails with your details as the "reply-to" address, then anyone who replies (or bounces) those mails will send them to you.

Chances are that the original messages were all either spam or viruses, so either way you don't want to be reading them.

Is the email address you use one supplied by your ISP or is it associated with your own website name? If the former, then ask your ISP about blocking unwanted mail. The latter is more complicated.

[buttons-and-bows]

I get quite a few a week as well but i just bin them. I have had to delet my website based address from outlook as that gets loads and like Damian says its more difficult to sort that type.

[alisonofcoalway]

Hi - thanks for your input everyone. The address used is the one supplied by my ISP. Quite honestly, they weren't a lot of help - I emailed them with my problem (I had actually found the relevent help page but the link they gave was blocked) - I got a reply with a ticket number and about 4 days later I got their answer which directed me to the help page I had already found!!! I tried a different route into the blocked link - which is a website you can look up IP addresses on and accessed it. So I am sending now the email headers back to those addresses - as per my IP's instructions. But it really is a pain. However I am getting some acknowledgements from the originating IPs so hopefully somethings happening.

I will also try your suggestion Damian and ask if my IP can block them. I'll probably get another ticket with a reply 4 days later directing me somewhere I've already been.

If I can't resolve it any other way I'll have to re-registered with my IP and ask for a new address.

[snagz]

Hmmm
this sounds familiar.
I had the same problem a while back,
It's called a "joe-job attack" where someone uses your web addy as a "reply to" address on spam email.
I was worried that I'd get branded a spammer for mail I hadn't sent but my ISP assured me that "reply to" addys aren't liable to be regarded as the spammers because the 'real' spammers hide their tracks behind these innocent victims.
not a lot you can do I'm afraid, unless you only accept mail from peeps you know.
You can reduce the chances of getting hit by NOT using the "Catchall/Default email address" facility on your webspace mail controls as you will probably find these addys are things like xyz@yourwebspace.co.uk rather than john@yourwebspace.co.uk. they are normally bargaining on the return addy not actually existing.

[dragonmist]

I had this problem when I was on AOL dial-up. From the number of complaints on the message boards I think AOL's data base was compromised. To really add to my misery, AOL disconnected my account and said they had proof I was spamming. 160 spam emails were sent out with AOL's "You have pictures" feature. Some for Viagra and "p*n*s enlargement. The worst ones for a site showing young teenage girls. I got some awful e-mails about those.The emails were all there in my "sent" box, but I couldn't access them.
I could prove I hadn't sent them though. At the time they were sent I was in Gloucester at my Mother -in -Law's funeral. They tried to say someone must have used my PC while I was out. Telephone records showed no calls made during that time. Also, an anti-virus " snapshot" of the PC showed that I did not have the "You have Pictures" software on my PC. I never used it so I uninstalled it. After 3 days of phone calls, I had to send in photocopies of my phone bill and the PC data, and they unblocked my account. I got 3 months free connection as an apology. I changed my password, logged out, logged in and changed it again, to be doubly secure. When the 3 months was up I switched to Tesco.net, and later Tesco BB. I've never had a problem with Tesco.net. I gather somone at AOL got fired for selling customer data.

[alisonofcoalway]

Hi - this morning when I logged on I didn't have any 'Undelivered Mail' so am hoping it is slowing down - I have been following my ISP links and advice and contacting the orginating IP with copies. This obviously happens an awful lot to a lot of people. Mine is more a pain than anything malicious (apart from it being unsolicitated spam!!) I haven't received any photos or rude bits.
If anything else exciting develops I'll let you know.
I think its just a relief to know I'm not the only one.
Obviously with technology these days spammers can just run programs that send out 1000's of random links and by the law of averages they are bound to get some correct ones.

Nice talking to you all
Alison