Posted by Phillip Noll on January 25, 2009 at 3:10 PM
It appears that someone is sending spam and making it look like it is coming from me! They are using my "info at ravenmountain dot com" email address as their return address. Some of the messages are bouncing back and ending up in my inbox.
Does anyone know how to deal with such a situation? I haven't a clue but I don't want my photography business being accused of sending spam!
Yikes! That is nasty! I will not be much help, but I do have some questions that maybe you have already addressed.
Are you sure your site and email account are not hacked? Have you put something on your web site to tell others that you are not sending spam? Could you disable your email account for a while to produce an "invalid email address" error when someone else sends a message using your email address as the return?
I realize these are probably not the correct questions/actions to take, but I am not a sys admin. Just my $0.02 (and it probably isn't worth that much). If it was me, I would be preparing a different email account and contacting my provider to see what can be done to track down the individual that caused this problem.
S
Posted by Phillip Noll on January 25, 2009 at 4:06 PM
I took the email accounts off line for a month and just re-established them last week. I currently have no website (its being built), just a "Coming Soon" page.
In the month that the emails were offline, I switched from PCs to Macs, switched my ISP, and switched webhosts. So I'm pretty confident that my local machines are not compromised and I doubt that the webhost has been compromised. I think its just some spoofers/spammers using my email as a return address but damn its annoying!
Posted by Scott Bacon on January 25, 2009 at 5:14 PM
Welcome to the club. My scott@baconphoto.com got spoofed last fall. It is soooo easy for spammers to create any "from" email address they want. Those slimy, good-for-nothin' %$#@!s. And unfortunately, there is really nothing you can do about it, except delete that email account and make an announcement on your website.
Posted by David Rogers on January 26, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Do what I do - disposable email addresses. I have a main email address and tons of aliases to that email address. I give out only whatever alias I want to businesses and others. So, for shopping I will actually set up an alias for that business; e.g., businessX@xyz.com. When I no longer want email from businessX I delete the alias. If the alias is important; i.e., a lot of trusting people use it, then I will give enough time to alter others as needed that the email address is about to change. Then, after a week or two the alias is gone.
Close friends only know my actual email address. If I get spam from others using businessX@xyz.com then I know that that business sells their information or got hacked. Either way - I no longer do business with them.
I encrypt my alias email address on my site, too. This really helps spoil the spambots.
For what it is worth.
I do have a contact page where I do use the following trick.
I do not use mail email address as they are (email@provider.com) on my site but I do use (email-at-provider-dot-com). Most people do understand what they have to do. For those who does not know I put a line of explanation with it.
It seems to work for the moment
But it is unavoidable to get some spam.
Hope this helps a little.
Posted by Jim Casteel on January 26, 2009 at 1:01 PM
We had the same thing happen with our corporate email, this thankfully is just spoofing and not actually hacking your mail server. Most of the time the emails are only sent to you. One thing you can do that will help is use a company like MXLogic. We started using them and it has eliminated almost 100% of this stuff. There is also some free stuff you can get but MXLogic was cheap enough we went with it because of it's ease of use.
Posted by todd roseman on January 27, 2009 at 1:36 PM
To help prevent spoofing, set an SPF record on your domain DNS settings. This allows you to say who is authorized to send email for your domain. Since spammers won't be, this check will fail and most larger companies will reject their email. check the wikipedia article on spf for more info...
Posted by Les Barstow on January 27, 2009 at 5:00 PM
What Todd said, though it isn't foolproof.
The e-mail protocol (SMTP) was designed for the days of the geeks who designed the Internet; it was never meant to counter malicious idiots. Anyone can fake the From address in an e-mail, and only recent changes (like SPF) can protect you from that.
Todd describes the basics of SPF, but realize that SPF protection is implemented by each receiving mail server, so if a server hasn't yet implemented SPF, spoofed mail will be allowed to go through. Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and most other major providers understand and obey SPF records, as do many systems set up with anti-spam protection measures.
Go to http://www.openspf.org/ to get started. You will need to work with your DNS provider (often your ISP) to get this set up. Once it is configured, you MUST send mail through one of the designated servers or your mail will be rejected as though it was spam.
Posted by Jon LaBass on February 24, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Also, one other method to prevent your address from being hijacked is to never post it in plaintext on any webpages because there are crawlers just looking for email addresses they can hijack. That's why several people post their address as user at domain dot com.
Discussion
9 repliesDoes anyone know how to deal with such a situation? I haven't a clue but I don't want my photography business being accused of sending spam!
Please Help!
Are you sure your site and email account are not hacked? Have you put something on your web site to tell others that you are not sending spam? Could you disable your email account for a while to produce an "invalid email address" error when someone else sends a message using your email address as the return?
I realize these are probably not the correct questions/actions to take, but I am not a sys admin. Just my $0.02 (and it probably isn't worth that much). If it was me, I would be preparing a different email account and contacting my provider to see what can be done to track down the individual that caused this problem.
S
In the month that the emails were offline, I switched from PCs to Macs, switched my ISP, and switched webhosts. So I'm pretty confident that my local machines are not compromised and I doubt that the webhost has been compromised. I think its just some spoofers/spammers using my email as a return address but damn its annoying!
Close friends only know my actual email address. If I get spam from others using businessX@xyz.com then I know that that business sells their information or got hacked. Either way - I no longer do business with them.
I encrypt my alias email address on my site, too. This really helps spoil the spambots.
For what it is worth.
I do have a contact page where I do use the following trick.
I do not use mail email address as they are (email@provider.com) on my site but I do use (email-at-provider-dot-com). Most people do understand what they have to do. For those who does not know I put a line of explanation with it.
It seems to work for the moment
But it is unavoidable to get some spam.
Hope this helps a little.
The e-mail protocol (SMTP) was designed for the days of the geeks who designed the Internet; it was never meant to counter malicious idiots. Anyone can fake the From address in an e-mail, and only recent changes (like SPF) can protect you from that.
Todd describes the basics of SPF, but realize that SPF protection is implemented by each receiving mail server, so if a server hasn't yet implemented SPF, spoofed mail will be allowed to go through. Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and most other major providers understand and obey SPF records, as do many systems set up with anti-spam protection measures.
Go to http://www.openspf.org/ to get started. You will need to work with your DNS provider (often your ISP) to get this set up. Once it is configured, you MUST send mail through one of the designated servers or your mail will be rejected as though it was spam.
http://www.spamresource.com/2007/07/ask-al-my-email-address-is-being-used.html
Also, one other method to prevent your address from being hijacked is to never post it in plaintext on any webpages because there are crawlers just looking for email addresses they can hijack. That's why several people post their address as user at domain dot com.