Have I been hacked?

scottishbargainhunter_2

I have a 20 year old email address. For a while, I regularly received emails that look as if they come to me, but often they are also addressed to several other email addresses which seem to be in sync with mine, ie the next letter or number up. Replying to these is pointless, as they are set up to reply to us rather than the spammer who just wants their link clicked.

When I first got them, I spent months checking my machines, changing passwords and getting stressed over it, but after a while I got to being able to ignore them and they've died away and probably got someone else's to use that gives them better results.

Different passwords for things makes it harder for people to hack, so it's always worth doing, no matter how much of a pain it is.

ballyblack

For the record Bertie UK what email service do you use?.

Some of them seem more prone than others

macman

Was the email in question showing up in your 'Sent' folder? If not, then it's just address spoofing, and changing the password is all all that you need to do as a precaution.
If it is in your Sent folder, then you've been hacked, and a full malware scan and password change should be carried out.
A tenner says it's a Hotmail account, and you're running McAfee AV?

ballyblack

I would bet on hotmail as well