Weird e-mails in my inbox

[RPupkin]

I've just logged into my inbox and found about 5 delivery notification failiures to e-mails I've never seen before. Has my account been hacked in anyway? One was for some military housing development in Bristol . They all were sent around the same time as each other but I've had nothing since?

Any ideas? Thanks

[Ian J]

It's fairly common and I get it quite often. The spammers have used your address as a return address on spam that they have been sending out.

It's annoying but I don't think that there is much that you can do about it apart from being careful who you give your email address out to.

[SeanT]

Does your email provider require your username and password for outgoing messages (authenticated smtp)? If not, email them and ask them why not, as this could be due to someone using your email account to send this spam.. If there's a lot of it, and it's just started, run netstat and make sure said spam isn't coming from your own PC!!!

[CGizzi]

Doesnt directly help but I always have 2 email address.

1. That I pass to my contacts & friends I trust not to stick my address on facebook or whatever, buying things from sites I know to be ok.

2. When Im buying things for the 1st time, needing to put my address on a website for confirmation or insurance quote etc.

Ive done this for over 10 years & whilst my 2nd address recieves a lot of spam etc. my primary address is always very clean.

[gavan]

If you're buying stuff or registering online for logins to various sites, try using mailinator.

It's a disposable email address. You can use <any name you like>@mailinator.com as your email address. Mail will go there and you can read it (as can anyone else by the way) and will be deleted after 4 or 5 hours.

It's great for when you need to receive an email - perhaps with a registration link - but don't want to give your proper address out.

If for some reason you think that address might be getting mail you are interested in again, you can get an RSS feed from it to alert you of new messages.

[RPupkin]

Awsome replies, appreciate it guys, will look into everything that has been said, i'm glad its nothing major. I have a hotmail account so I suppose security is not their strongest suit! All the best.