Richard Curtis

Help - For some reason my main ISP mailbox (Plusnet) is sending out spam and I don't know how to stop it.

I keep getting delivery failure messages from mails sent from my account to unknown email accounts, I assume loads more must be getting through and spamming people.

The subjects and recipients are all different.

The strange thing is these mails are being sent at intervals throughout the day - even in the night when my PC is off.

I have contacted my ISP and they suggested I do a virus scan. I have norton, adaware and zonealarm but all come up clean.

Do I have a virus? I am more inclined to think the ISP mailbox has been hacked since its occuring when my PC is off - is this possible?

Cheers
Rich

HankScorpio

Possible but someone may also only be spoofing your address as a return address, I have bursts of it.
I got my ISP to check and the mail wasn't actually going through my server/account, just had my address as a return.

Change your password as first step anyway.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I get the same. All that's happening is that spammers are using their address lists in two ways: they send out spam to each address on the list, and they pick another address from the list to put in the 'from' field. So, if your address is in the 'from' field, when messages get bounced by ISPs' spam filters, you're the one that gets the delivery failure report.

Frankly your ISP should have known this. If you're getting failure reports sent at times when your PC is switched off, there's no way they can relate to messages your PC has actually sent.

ChrisB

I've been getting a fair few bounces of late from spammers "using" my domain.

The messages claim to come from some random name on my domain eg fxyxhgh@mydomain.com. As the messages get bounced by mail servers due to deleted or mis-spelled addresses or spam filters, they get punted back to me

There's not a lot you can do about it.

Tiggs

they sound a bit dumb if they didnt even suggest that the mail is not from you at all.

i get loads of these and it just ends up in the spam folder.

Dream Weaver

Averaging about 50 of these per day at the minute.