Email Account Is Sending My Contacts Spam

I use 2 yahoo email accounts one for friends and family the other for signing up for things such as online bill pay or ebay, etc. Today I noticed I had an email from the one account to the other, and when I opened it I noticed it had emailed all the people in my address book too. Of course it was some Canadian pharmacy advertisement. This is my email sending the spam out, what should I do to stop this?

 

Welcome back Jacque!

This has been going on with hotmail for some time and now it seems to have gravitated to Yahoo. It is most likely not you that is getting hacked it is Yahoo. I would suggest that you clear out your contacts in Yahoo and start using a mail client for all your email. You can have your contact list in Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail. Thunderbird etc. and they should not appear within the webmail site.

Of course this train may have already left the station. Fortunately most of this seems to be spam as opposed to something more malicious. I would also contact Yahoo and would be very interested in their response. Usually the first thing they do is deny it is them.

 

I've been through this with Yahoo also. That's exactly what they do. Deny, deny, deny. Then put it back on the user with canned responses.
If they were to mend the chinks in their armor. Their advertisers would no longer pay into Yahoo's coffers.

 

I've checked the headers hundreds of times. I've lost count of how many times I have received e-mails that were in no way whatsoever addressed to me.
These e-mails were forwarded to Yahoo. Canned responses were what I consistently got in return.

 

I was a very squeaky wheel.

I don't have copies of these responses to show you. What I mean by "canned" is this. Even when the responses were from live Yahoo rep's., the advise was generic and scripted in nature.
Yahoo rep's. consistently endeavored to place the burden of responsibility for their Swiss cheesed, advertiser favoring e-mail service on the user.

 

In the last few days we have received similar posts about hotmail. Now let me add gmail to the mix.

I use gmail extensively but only through Windows Live Mail and before that Outlook Express. I only go to the gmail site to make sure that something important has not been sent to the spam folder which would keep it from WLM. Every once in a while I get email from what purports to be one of my other non gmail accounts. Since this these threads got started I went to gmail and looked at my contacts that were listed on the site. I expected none but found that I did have one. That one was the very same account that appeared to be the source of the spam. Of course it was not really the source it was spoofed.

I am also on the contact list from one of our staff members who uses Hotmail and I get occasional email from him as well (also spoofed.)

To me there is only one conclusion that can be drawn. Having a contact list on one of these web based email is an invitation to become an unwitting spammer. I have never received any other spam email from a purported contact that was on a list either in Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail. The only logical conclusion I can draw for those like myself who use web based addresses is to only use them with their POP settings (or IMAP though I have not tried that.)

Having said that I am also concerned about the fact that all my incoming and sent email is still on the gmail site but it seems that (for now) it is only the contact lists that are being attacked.

 

I had at one time a Pharmacy sent mail from my Yahoo account to my Server account.. After complaining to Yahoo, all they could say was Spam Filters..The Pharmacy mail address was me! How this was done I haven't a clue. But it's never happen again, this has been like almost a year now..

So am I reading this thread correctly, and not to use mail accounts like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail..Having web forums I was going to not admit these mail accounts at one time, this was many years ago. But you'd have no members if you did, everyone seems to use these first, refuse to sign up on a forum with there IPS Server mail account..

I have two Pop3 Yahoo accounts, just about due to renew. I have two IPS Server mail accounts, from two different IPS Servers.

Also about 'Contacts' are they safe in IPS Server accounts and Pop 3 web mail accounts..

I also have access to three Host Server mail accounts. Which I use one. I used both of my Byethost mail accounts, but had numerous problems sending and receiving mail..I at one time on the forum, all the Staff had a mail accounts, same lousy problems with sending and receiving..after numerous complaints and getting nowhere fast, I dumped all the accounts, this is when I went to Yahoo Pop 3 accounts..

Can someone send me and others down the right road on web mail accounts..Do I use them or not..are the Pop 3 web mail accounts any good, like Yahoo, etc.

Need some good answers, spam is getting worst than ever..

 

Let me give you a simple answer. It is not the email accounts or address's that is the problem it is how you use them.

When most of us got started with internet access and email we had ISPs that gave us email addresses and showed us how to set them up in Outlook Express which was the primary email client of the day. Little by little even the ISPs started to base their email on the web. BUT they always give you the means to set them up in clients using POP3 settings.

As I indicated I use gmail. It is not some special kind of POP3 gmail. I use the POP3 settings to have all my email collected in a single mail client (Windows Live Mail in my case but there are several others)

I also send my email from my client using whatever email account I choose. Because I never go to the web site for gmail there is no need to have a contacts list anywhere other than on my own computer as part of my mail client. My mail is recorded on the site as well as my client but you can remove any mail from the site and still have it in your client.

There is no reason not to use the web based mail but there is good reason not to keep a contacts list on the web. Just like it is not a good idea to put an email address on a forum post. There are bots out there just looking for email addresses to sell to spammers and spoofers who use those addresses to make it seem as if spam is coming from you or your contacts. There is no coincidence involved.

To my mind clients are both safer and easier to use once you get the hang of it. This is particularly true where you use multiple email addresses. You can organize them by the account and still have them all in the same place.

 

This has been happening for a while, it happened to me not too long ago as some here know

When I did some digging, a list with several thousand Hotmail email addresses and their corresponding passwords were lost, some said it was MSN themselves that lost the list (they refused to comment on this to me)............. cut a long story short change your password and it will stop.

 

Barry can you explain this..If I'm reading properly, are you having all your web mail accounts forwarding the mail to your server mail account..

Now the contacts, are you saying no contacts in the Yahoo or Gmail files, just the server account..

Thanks..

 

I just recently had one of my older web forums, Hacked pretty badly. So I learned about, Passwords the hard way, yet I use to preach for years about having a excellent Password..I do now 16 digits long, all mixed..
I use ATT which uses Pop 3 Yahoo, I also use Sympatico.ca which uses Pop 3 Live, plus I have two Pop 3 Yahoo accounts, and I have one Hosting account I use with the web forum..which I don't care for to much..sometimes they take forever, or are still in outer space floating..

 

I think you are getting a few things confused. What I am suggesting is that you download a mail client (I use Windows Live Mail ) and then have all your contacts in that client. You should delete them all from the web mail that goes a step further than what Dalo has said but I still just hate the webmail sites. There is no reason to not use the web mail it is just how you use it. Try downloading a client and we will help you to set it up.

 

OK Now I am 'confused'..I think I have two client email accounts, ATT (which is pop3 Yahoo) & Sympatico.ca (which is Live mail)

What is wrong with the Yahoo pop 3 accounts. (can you explain) I have two that I pay for.

Barry I feel like I've hijacked this thread, It was started by another member. Want me to start a new thread..

 

No because it will help the member anyway.

I am the one confused. A mail client is a program that takes all your email and puts it in one place. WLM sets up exactly like the old Outlook Express in terms of creating an account. (That is really not exactly what your are doing though.) What you are doing is setting up an existing account so the client will pick it up. In WLM once you set up an account it will have its own folder and mail addressed to it will be sorted into that folder. In addition it will have a quick folder where you can view all your unread email regardless of what account and another for all email.

The effect is that you never have to go to the website to view or send mail and in the case of WLM you do not even have to use any other function of windows live in fact I am never logged into windows Live at all. I believe you have to have windows live in order to download the program. There is also "Thunderbird" by Mozilla (Firefox) that some people prefer. You just need to go to each account and get the settings and then set them up in the client.

The only reason I ever check gmail directly is to make sure I didn't miss something that it classified as spam and did not forward.

When you set up your contacts list in the client you can remove it from the webmail. A contacts list in the client is on your computer and can be used by any account you choose.

 

I'm a little slow catching on, but I think now I know what you are getting at. With my Sympatico.ca WLM account. I have set it up to send and receive from other accounts. (Is this what you are referring to.)

Now with ATT I don't think they have this setup.. I know every darn time I make a change the phone rings right after I'm done, Wanting to know if I made a change..I'll have to check ATT out..