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General discussion

Email Troubles

Mar 6, 2004 4:30AM PST

I am getting returned emails that it says are being sent from me to people i dont know. I have recieved about 20 in the past 2 days. I ran adaware and spybot, ran nortons and i have a firewall. I even changed my password to my email acct. But i have 2 email accts i use from home and only 1 acct is the one having these problems. I am posting a copy of one of the return emails i am getting. They all seem to be from aol. Anybody seen anything like this before? Also all the emails have a 1kb attachment to them that just says attach4. Any help would be appreciated.

The original message was received at Sat, 6 Mar 2004 14:16:49 -0500 (EST)
from pcp06938816pcs.nrockv01.md.comcast.net [69.138.16.15]


*** ATTENTION ***

Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its
delivery. The address which was undeliverable is listed in the section
labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----".

The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section
labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could
not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a
general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail
administrator.

--AOL Postmaster


----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<gsfhfg@aol.com>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-ye02.mail.aol.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<gsfhfg@aol.com>
<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
550 <gsfhfg@aol.com>... User unknown

Discussion is locked

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Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 4:43AM PST

I do NOT think it is YOUR problem !

AOL have tightened their policy for email and its not clear as to how to get ligitimate email in to their system.

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Re:Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 4:56AM PST

possible doom?

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Re:Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 5:27AM PST

Thanks for responding. The only problem i have is that i do not know any of these emails that are being returned to me. None of these people are in my address book. Each email has a differnt ip address it says is the sender, none of those belong to me either. Its like somebody is sending out emails and they are getting returned to my email address instead of the senders. Thanks again for your help.

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Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 5:46AM PST

I see, at the moment there are several viruses running around which SPOOF the e-mail addresses. Keep deleting them !

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Rocks I had the same exact thing happen last week. They showed up in
Mar 6, 2004 11:15AM PST

my Junk Mail Folder and I just kept deleting them until it stopped. It lasted about 3 days or so.

Lee

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Re:Email Troubles with Personainternet server also...
Mar 6, 2004 5:04AM PST
www.personainternet.com I received notices from them saying there is a problem with virus attacks. I am not going to open any email attachments.
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Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 5:12AM PST

Rocks, I had an occasion last summer that was similar to this.It turned out that my daughter had a (bug)that was sending out email on her puter that was made to look like it was sent from me.Th e(bug) had free access to her address book.If I recall right it was the klez virus.I would call all who have you in their address book and have them check their computer for the klez.

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Re:Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 6:04AM PST

Fish, you're right on about the e-mail spoofing. Unfortunately, this method is being used by more than just the Klez virus.

It's a real pain when your only crime is that your e-mail address is in an infected computer's address book. At the height of the Klez activity, it seemed like more people were being bombarded with seemingly 'returned mail' than the actual virus itself.

I remember one instance in which my e-mail address was in the address book of an infected computer that was sending me Klez infected e-mails with spoofed addresses. I was able to trace them back to the infected computer and was I surprised. The person who had the infected computer was someone whose computer had been infected with another virus a year prior to this.

I had spent a lot of time helping her to get her system cleaned up, virus free, and protected with AV and a firewall. She had seemed so appreciative and swore she'd keep on top of the security issue. Well, I guess she decided to let the AV lapse after the year was up, and here she was infected once more!

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Re:Re:Re:Email Troubles
Mar 6, 2004 4:01PM PST

Please tell me how you were able to trace them back to the infected computer. I am also getting emails returned that I didn't send but have no idea who's computer is infected.

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Re:Re:Re:Re:Email Troubles
Mar 7, 2004 6:44AM PST

Auggie,

Often, you can't figure out who is responsible for the darned things. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can.

In Outlook Express, with the message selected, go to file > properties > details > message source. (Then, I usually maximize the screen so I can better view the details).

Sometimes, even if you don't find an actual familiar address, you may find a clue that may indicate who has the infected computer. For instance, I've gotten e-mails returned to me that I know I didn't send. Once, they were 'returned' to me by an equestrian related domain name. I checked through all my horsey type friends and located the person with the infected computer.

Best of luck to you.