Spam coming from my own email address

howsoonisnow

In the last few weeks I have been getting loads of spam (for viagra mostly but now for watches too) showing my email address in both the "from" and "to" fields. Does this mean that my computer has been hijacked by spammers and my security software has failed to pick up on it?

I have tried to block these messages but do not want to block my own email addrress as I often email attachments to myself - easier than messing around with USB sticks. So, I tried blocking the 3 or 4 key phrases which kept appearing in the subject lines but this only worked for a while as the text in the subject lines keeps changing.

Thanks for any helpful advice

Sput2001

No, they're just "spoofing" your address. It's quite a common technique that spammers use to bypass filters and up the chances of your opening the message.

It hasn't actually come from your email, and your computer or email account (almost certainly) haven't been hijacked. Don't worry!

Just treat it as any other spam, but don't block your own email address, obviously!

This explains it a bit more.

howsoonisnow

Thanks, Nick. Obviouisly my spam filter will never pick up on these (it's very good with most other spam though) However, all of the messages in question are marked as high priority, so I have just created a rule which takes any message conming from my email address with high priority, and moves them straight into the spam folder, and also marks them as read. Sorted - for now.