Help! Yahoo!Xtra account sending spam...

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andrew027

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Master Geek

Topic # 89389 1-Sep-2011 11:49
I don't know if this has been asked before. I did a quick search through this forum and couldn’t find any relevant threads... I run Outlook 2010 on my home PC. This is the only mail client I use from home. If I need to check my home email from work or a friend/relative's house, I will sometimes use the Yahoo mail service - clicking the Mail link on xtra.co.nz (nz.yahoo.com), but that's pretty rare. Friends are advising me that immediately after sending an email to my xtra.co.nz address, they are occasionally getting a piece of junk mail, supposedly sent by my address, telling them how happy I am with the iPad I just bought. I regularly run a range of scans over my PC, which have detected nothing. I have no record of these junk emails on my PC or Sent Items Outlook folder, etc. but have seen a couple in the Sent folder on Yahoo!Xtra mail. This makes me think that perhaps my Yahoo!Xtra mail has been hacked, and the spam is being sent from my account on the Yahoo server, not my from my PC. I have therefore changed my account password, a couple of times, but the spam is still being sent. I have contacted Telecom and Yahoo, who have both shown no interest whatsoever. Can anyone here advise what I can do to track down where these emails originate from, and get rid of them once and for all?

756 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 514981 1-Sep-2011 11:56
I suspect if they look at the properties of the message, you will likely find the source path and return email differ. And may not come from you at all Its quite likely their PCs have malware, and are looking at their recent sent to/address book and going "woohoo.. a new email address to use as a spoof" Get one of them forwarded to you AS AN ATTACHMENT. To open and evaluate its headers if they are not savvy

BDFL
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Reply # 514988 1-Sep-2011 12:02
If he can see the spam on his SENT folder, then it's not a spoof - it's someone using his account on a web-based interface, or his PC is compromised. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

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Ultimate Geek

Reply # 515034 1-Sep-2011 13:13
Whoops. Woke up too early. Overlooked the 2nd bold wording.

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Master Geek

Reply # 515127 1-Sep-2011 15:28
I had a similar problem after buying an android phone and downloaded 1 too many apps, that 1 stole my password and started sending people "free offers". Kind of embarrassing for an "IT Expert" to get hacked. The emails were showing up in my sent items folder (being sent at 4am etc…) after changing my email password and deleting my phone apps it stopped.

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Reply # 515185 1-Sep-2011 16:57
That's hardly getting hacked, more like social engineering. But yes, it's similar. The interesting thing is we are giving away a licence for Symantec Mobile Security and some people replied saying "don't need security on mobile"... Oh yes, about that. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

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Reply # 515222 1-Sep-2011 17:44
scorpiworld: I had a similar problem after buying an android phone and downloaded 1 too many apps, that 1 stole my password and started sending people "free offers". Kind of embarrassing for an "IT Expert" to get hacked. The emails were showing up in my sent items folder (being sent at 4am etc…) after changing my email password and deleting my phone apps it stopped. What app was it??

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Reply # 515227 1-Sep-2011 17:49
I had a client with the same problem. The holiday auto-reply online had been "hijacked" and was automatically sending out a spam message every time something was sent to the account.

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Master Geek

Reply # 515412 1-Sep-2011 22:59
Hey Nix Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was the problem! I had already checked Outlook for "out of office" or autoreply messages, but I didn't even know there was such a thing as a "vacation response" in Yahoo's webmail. But after poking around for a while I found it, and there was that damned iPad spam. The text has been cleared, the vacation response turned off, and my password changed again, just for good measure. Thanks again. I was beginning to get very pssd off with that, as were many of my friends!