[thelist] Someone stole my email address

[Phil Turmel]

Chris,

This is likely one form of spam that tricks you into opening it by 
pretending to be a delivery failure.  The spammer relies on the apparent 
(respectable) destination to bounce the message, which means the bounce 
comes from them.  Since the *bounce* comes from a respectable domain, it 
gets through the first defense line of many spam blockers.

These can be hard to spot before opening, so its important that your 
email viewer prohibit plugins, scripting, and remote images when opening 
such.

On the odd chance that this is a relay problem, show one to your hosting 
provider and request that they verify your domain's relay security.

HTH,

Phil

Chris Johnston wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I think someone is trying to steal my email address, well, my domain
> really, and use it for spam. For the past several days I keep getting
> Delivery Failure messages in my inbox. When I check the headers of the
> sent emails they are from an email address using my domain name, but
> that I do not have set up with my hosting provider. Is there anything
> I can do about this? I don't really want my domain to black listed in
> terms of spam.
> 
> Is there something I can do about this or is this something that I
> need to take up with my hosting provider?
>