Someone is using my hotmai address!!

[scots misty]

Yesterday i received 185 returned e-mails from the postmaster (posted from my own address to myself! How can they do this? I have changed my password but still happening.

[MarkRae]

You're right - they're using your HotMail address. However, they're just using it as a spoof "from" address to help them bypass automatic spam filters. Your address will have been "harvested" by a webbot and picked up by spammers as a highly prized live email account.

There's nothing you can do about this, I'm afraid, short of shutting down the email account...

[scots misty]

thanks Mark! i guess i will have to open a new account. just soo annoying

[MarkRae]

Sorry, I should have said that they will (almost) certainly stop using your email address fairly soon, so you might want to "tough it out", as they say...

[TonyV]

If you can clean your computer up with some anti virus - to late now I know - depends if your address is important for you to be contacted at - if it is tough it out

[heathfield]

I've had the same thing yesterday, receiving half a dozen emails returned as 'undeliverable'. Not through Hotmail, but through AOL. This included one via a domain name I have, but which haven't used in years. Curious.

[Memore]

I had this recently I just changed password and loaded a anti virus on there and it stopped however they had hacked my Ebay and Paypal account and changed my main address for deliveries to somewhere up North that wasn't anything to do with me - so you should change all passwords = it has taken about one month to sort out but still have same hotmail account etc

[AutomaticGal]

Im actually doing a study on this for my final year project, my personal theory is that people think that their passwords a secure, but when you look at something like a brute force password cracking software, it can take as little as a day to crack a password that has lowercase, uppercase and numbers. a day may seem long but if you only change ur password one a year then score 1 to hacker - 0 to user.

my recommendation to you and everyone is not to use dictionary words or names, not to keep passwords that are related to each other and to please mix special characters, numbers, upper case and lowercase and to have a minimum 6 character password.

cracking software programs are smart. i should know, ive been studying them for 9 months straight.

if you dont mind, Please can you help! i'm doing some research for my project and i need some volunteers to fill out my survey. If you cant answer it can you at lease forward the link on, tweet it or or anything, so it get to as many people as possible.

http://kwiksurveys.com/?u=KUFYP

Any help is appreciated greatly. Thank you !!!!

[MarkRae]

> Any help is appreciated greatly.

Are you serious? Are you able to change the text of your survey?

[AutomaticGal]

*blushes*

yea that was a blatant copy and paste of an e-mail i sent everyone. if there is anything wrong with the survey let me know...

[MarkRae]

You mean apart from all the mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation...?

[AutomaticGal]

yea... pretty much. ur the first thats mentioned it actually. its just a research paper questionnaire. you dont have to fill it in, it would help if you did, but no one is telling you to.

[MarkRae]

See, there's the thing right there. Is this supposed to be for an academic project? "Ur" was an ancient Sumerian city-state. If you mean "you're", then say "you're". Is there actually something wrong with you...?

[AutomaticGal]

yes, it is a university project. but answering on here is not something that i will be assessed on. so i can LOL , LMAO , ROFL , U and UR all i want :)

[MarkRae]

I'm very sorry, I didn't realise you had learning difficulties...

[AutomaticGal]

i apologise too, i didnt realise you had a pole stuck up your bottom.

welcome to the 21 century:
LOL - http://oxforddictiona...479030#m_en_gb0479030

ROFL - http://oxforddictiona...994124#m_en_gb0994124

LMAO - http://oxforddictiona...993919#m_en_gb0993919

UR - http://oxforddictiona...sult=1#m_en_gb0994265

AND EVEN OM NOM NOM - http://oxforddictiona...994467#m_en_gb0994467

if you took the time to read my questionnaire, you would have seen there are no spelling mistakes.

[MarkRae]

> if you took the time to read my questionnaire, you would have seen there are no
> spelling mistakes.

"also i would"

[MarkRae]

And, while we're at it, "didnt" needs an apostrophe between the final pair of letters..

[AutomaticGal]

oh lord..... i'll leave you, UR pole and UR grammar be. i find it funny how you dont pick on anyone else about their grammar. u'd be here a long time if you did.. oh thats a new one for ya too..

U'D!!