Hotmail account hacked into?

aaroncaz

Today, had an email from someone I know in Italy, claiming to be in nigeria and needing money sent to them! This is a scam, but how did the person get hold of this persons email address and contacts? Another person I know, recieved the same email, also,now this person has our email addresses, and they get into our accounts?? the person who email address was used, has a Windows Live, site? her email is on there, but how did this person get hold of her contact list? sorry to be dim:o

Conor_3

What do you mean "get into your accounts"?
Anyone can send you an e-mail. Just because they have your address doesn't mean they can get into your account unless you're one of these people who have a Myspace/facebook type page with lots of personal info and despite tons of media coverage still use your DOB, kids name etc as your password which is possibly what your friend may have done had their account actually been compromised.

And just because the "from" address may appear to be your friend doesn't mean it was sent from their account. Anyone can put any "from" address they want to in their e-mail client and that's what it'll show up as.

Hope that helps a bit.

xJonny

I don't think you are hacked but you might have been on a website and your email addresses were visible, this may be from a email harvester site which might claim to send you free sweets for example or from another type which searches webpages for email addresses. If your email addresses were both on the same page it could have been sweeped up like that. That is why people use

email [at] domain dot com

so they don't get useless spam. Also to say that this type of scam email is very common and gets sent to loads of people so it could have just been coincidence.

And as said above, anyone can send email from a different email address. Sometimes email providers can recognize them because they are sending from a different mail server but sometimes not. I wouldn't worry too much. Unless of course you knew that you downloaded a suspicious file.

BOBS

almost a year on and I have just got an email from a friend (who I know is still in the country) saying she is in Nigeria and needs money urgently etc..... it is a hotmail account and she says she has been unable to access her emails. They have been cute enough only to email people in her address book that she doesnt contact very often.
Dont think this should affect me as I was only a recipient.
Prob silly question ..... will this affect my computer in any way eg would there be any viruses etc with it???

DCFC79

Well id do a virus scan,