| Do you get bounced, or rejected emails sent by | | | | sometimes even the recipient address is forged. |
| someone else, with YOUR email address in the From | | | | The reason you get those bounce messages is |
| line? Does it mean your computer was hacked, or a | | | | because the spammers don't really care if some of |
| spammer has stolen your email address? Relax... this | | | | their emails are sent to addresses that are invalid or |
| is the work of a spammer, but it does NOT indicate | | | | defunct. It's all a numbers game to them. Some email |
| any security breach on your computer. | | | | servers are smart enough to look in the email |
| Why do spammers use MY email address? | | | | headers and easily determine that the person in the |
| Spammers generally don't like to poke their | | | | From line (in this case, you) didn't really send the |
| misshapen little heads out from under the rocks | | | | message. But others do not, so you get dumped on. |
| where they live, so they try to divert attention from | | | | It's even worse when the spam *is* delivered to a |
| themselves by making it look like someone else sent | | | | valid address and that person blames YOU. In such a |
| that "enlarge your body part" message. | | | | case, you can just explain that it was the work of an |
| It's trivially easy to spoof the From address in an | | | | Evil Spammer who forged your address. If they give |
| email. In fact, most email software will allow you to | | | | you flack, tell them to examine the Received lines in |
| change the From or the Reply-to address to | | | | the email headers (most email programs let you view |
| whatever you want. Spammers use high-volume mail | | | | the headers if you poke around in the options) and |
| merge software that picks a From address at | | | | they'll see that the source of the message was not |
| random from their database of addresses, and | | | | your service provider. |