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Dear PC Doctor:
My friends tell me they are receiving spam messages that look like they are coming from my e-mail address. I swear, I’m not sending them! How can I stop whoever is doing this?
Signed, Arthur
Dear Arthur:
I’m so sorry this is happening to you!
If your e-mail contacts are receiving spam messages from your address, it’s likely that the password for your account is in the hands of a malicious user. That person is probably using your e-mail to spam everyone in your e-mail address book.
First, see if you can still log in to your e-mail account. If you can, good! This means the infiltrator has yet to change your password. You should change your password immediately!
If your password does not work, you may be locked out of your account permanently. Contact your e-mail service to see if they can help. They can probably stop the spam from going out, and may be able to get you back into your account. If not, you may have to set up a new account and let your contacts know not to open anything from the old account.
Once you have changed your e-mail password, it would be a good idea to contact the people who received spam from you and let them know that you have regained control of your account. You may be able to see who received them by looking in your ‘sent’ folder.
It would be a very good idea to change all your passwords, such as the ones you use to get into Facebook, Linkedin, your online banking, etc. If you had saved these anywhere in your e-mail messages, they might also be compromised. It never hurts to be proactive!
Wishing you the best of luck –
Until next time… Happy Computing!
PC Doctor
Posted: to Athol Library News on Fri, Oct 25, 2013
Updated: Sat, Oct 26, 2013