HELP! SPAM being sent w/ my email address

[Irene M Ward]

I just received two emails from people I've never heard of asking me to unsubscribe them from "my" real estate newsletter. I don't have one - and never have! It's coming from my company email address so it appears to have been compromised in some way. How do I find the culprit and short of changing my email address, is there a solution? It gives my name and location so can I be held liable if someone claims they are coming from me directly!? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've already contacted my Broker.

Thanks for any and all input,
Irene

[kyle422]

I got an email like that yesterday.
"Unsubscribe from Realtor Newsletter"
"I believe I received an real estate newsletter from "kyle my full name" in Indialantic, FL.
Please remove me from future emails.
Thanks
Joe"
I don't have a newsletter either. I only send listings to prospects and this guy is someone I don't have in my database.
Strange.

[Irene M Ward]

What's even stranger is that is EXACTLY the email I got! My Broker did, as well!! And like an idiot I replied that I didn't send it!

[Irene M Ward]

Oh, by the way, the email address was to joe@drbill21.com. Where do we go from here?

[Propertyconsultants]

Hey guys here is some info that might help. Mail delivery via the Internet is accomplished through the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). It is a standardized way for servers at various institutions to pass mail back and forth. Unfortunately, SMTP is very simple and lacks any means of authenticating users (no password or identifying information is required to use the protocol). This means that the server must rely on the user's integrity to send mail as him/herself. Unfortunately, spammers and virus makers have no such integrity and exploit this lack of authentication by sending mail as just about anyone on the SMTP server.

For more information on mail spoofing and SMTP, please look at:
http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/email_spoofing.html

[pcdoc]

And like an idiot I replied that I didn't send it!

You accomplished the purpose designed into the automated email robot -- verified that your email address is intact, receives messages and is responded to by a flesh and blood 'human been'.

[kyle422]

Oh, by the way, the email address was to joe@drbill21.com. Where do we go from here?

Same address that was in my email. I didn't respond though.

[Jnazareno]

I usually just tag this sort of email as Spam ,dont know if that works but it makes me feel good doing it.

[Propertyconsultants]

Offcourse there is usually another problem that follows this spam issue, and that is that your ISP or hosting provider might start blocking your SMTP mail server, because they are showing you are senting spam. So you guys might want to talk to your providers.

I had this problem a few years ago and my ISP started blocking my smtp mail server, so I couldn't sent mail at all. I ended up switch hosting provider and everything was fine after that, but its definetly a pain in the @55

Good luck guys

[HMiller]

Oh, by the way, the email address was to joe@drbill21.com. Where do we go from here?

I got the exact same email today from the same email address! WTF is going on? Weird. They even used my middle initial which I never use professionally.