Junk email rec with my own email address?

holidayqueen

Just been chking my emails and in my junk box was an email with an offensive title. Clearly not genuine. I tried to block it but a message came up stating I could not block emails from my own email add?. I sent myself an email and it went to my inbox(not junk) and when I hovered over it, it showed the same email address as the one in my junk box?. I'm then thinking my email account has been hacked, panic mode set in. I ran a sec/ scan and nothing was picked up checked my recent activity, and everything showed from my ip add only and I could account for it. I have changed my password and added extra sec to my email account. I have managed to delete the email but find the whole event a bit scary. Can anyone reassure me everything is ok as i'm not really computer savvy. Thanks for any help given.

debitcardmayhem

I regularly get emails from me that I have not sent to myself.
My email has not been hacked , but some helpful site where I have added my email address has been. It is a fact of life, don't click on any links or documents etc that you have sent to yourself.

holidayqueen

Thank you so much debitcardmeyham. A friend kinda gave a similar response. Getting a prompt reply has certainly made me feel alot better.

debitcardmayhem

Just an addendum if all your friends / contacts get the same emails from you, then your web mail has been compromised, assuming you use webmail, if your contacts are only on your pc then it's been compromised. Just for info for now I hope

holidayqueen

debitcardmayhem i'm confused. As i said earlier i'm not computer savvy. Your post seems to read that my email has been compromised either way?. As no activity was seen from any other ip address other than my own. Can I assume all is well with my account?. Thanks again

debitcardmayhem

holidayqueen wrote: »

debitcardmayhem i'm confused. As i said earlier i'm not computer savvy. Your post seems to read that my email has been compromised either way?. As no activity was seen from any other ip address other than my own. Can I assume all is well with my account?. Thanks again

Sorry , I didn't mean to imply that,nor to scare you, re-read my last post, then if your friends/contacts get similar mails purporting to be from you it may be your address book/contacts have been compromised. If it is just directed at you then it is more than likely luck or some enterprise that has let your email address out in the wild. I have got infinite email addresses (using a mail domain) e.g. holidayqueen @ my.domain.server means that you may have leaked out my address if I get one to that address, but it may just be pure luck. It is very easy for me(and many nasty people) given your email address to send you an email which seems to be to:you from:you.

Don't worry, but if your friends get emails from you that you didn't send then having changed your password is all you can do for now.

tronator

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Just an addendum if all your friends / contacts get the same emails from you, then your web mail has been compromised...

Not necessarily, it could also be a mutual friend/contact.

Oblivion

I've received quite a few emails purporting to be 'from myself' to myself recently. It seems to be flavour of the month with spammers at the moment. My email hasn't been hacked or anything, they are simply spoofing the From address. When you look into the actual source detail the Return Address is always some foreign email domain and not my own address.

So nothing to worry about ... they just get deleted along with all the other spam.

holidayqueen

Thanks guys for your reply's. I chkd with friends to see if anyone got an email and they haven't. Having mulled it over seems likely it my email acc has not been hacked. I cant says it hasn't been a worry though. Its only last week I signed up for a computer course to get this kind of background knowledge. This goes to show it cant come quick enough. Once again thanks..

J_B

holidayqueen wrote: »

I tried to block it but a message came up stating I could not block emails from my own email add?..

Going back to the original question ...

Is there a way of blocking these sort of things in MS Outlook??

tronator

J_B wrote: »

Going back to the original question ...

Is there a way of blocking these sort of things in MS Outlook??

Using the sender's email address is almost useless anyway, as most spam comes from different addresses each time.

What you need is a Bayesian spam filter. I'm not sure whether Outlook has that built in or whether you need to install a plugin. Thunderbird has it out of the box. You train that filter by moving spam from your inbox into the spam folder and move falsely as spam classified emails back to your inbox. This way the filter gets better and better over time.