Why Does This Spam Look Like I Sent It?
It is possible that you will receive an email at some point in time that has
your own email address in the From: field, and yet you know you did not
send it! Or you may receive a bounce message for failed delivery, where the
message which was bounced appears to have been sent by you, and yet you
know you did not send the original message.
How can this happen?
It is trivial for someone to forge the From: field in an email message, and
therefore the From: field of an email message does not necessarily indicate
the true source of the email. Someone with the proper knowledge or software,
such as a spammer or virus author, could quite easily forge the From: field
of an email.
The sender does not require access to your account or your mail server to send
out email with your email address forged in the From field. An inspection of
the email headers should reveal
the source of the email and whether it was sent through the FutureQuest® servers
or not.
In most cases, you can disregard these emails. They are either the result of
a virus, or just a common spam. However, if you are the victim of a Joe
Job (i.e. large spam run has been sent out forged, to make it look like
you sent it), you should investigate
and report the source. Also, address
any possible complaints, and post disclaimers and notices on your web site
to alert recipients of the spam to what has actually happened.
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