I am receiving spam emails from my own email address and need to put a stop to it asap please.

Question

Hi as per above, for the last week I have been receiving spam emails from my own email address. Can anyone help me please to put a stop to this and also perhaps explain how it happened? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

Answer 1

'''but not sure what you mean when you say I must not store it on my computer?'''
I was just thinking that if someone or some software agent is accessing your computer then they also have access to saved passwords if for instance it is webmail and the password is stored on Firefox, or if you store logins and passwords in any other utility.
'''I have asked my service provider again for help - waiting to hear from them. I don't store passwords in any other utility that I know of? Are passwords stored automatically somewhere on computers?'''
An obvious thing to do is also make sure you log out of email and do not leave yourself logged in or use the remember me option.
'''Yes, thank you, I always log out and never use the remember me option'''
'''Thank you for your input. I did report this to my service provider and they assured me that no one is accessing my account?
I wonder what they meant by that
possibly that the account has been accessed only from your computer and the same IP Address has been shown
Maybe just that the mail used your login and password.
'''I have asked them to verify the above - thank you. :)'''
What are the emails ? do they make sense, are they also sent to others ? and of course is it likely anyone else is using your computer and sending these emails.
'''The emails make some sort of sense but not much. As far as I know I am the only one receiving them but just to be safe I deleted my Address Book. No one else has access to my computer - I am the only one who uses it. :(('''
it is probably worth contacting them again, give a couple of examples of the emails you are referring to and tell them that you yourself did not type those emails. Ask if they can explain how this may have happened.
'''Done and awaiting their response. :) Thank you'''
As a general security measure it is also good practice
to use a limited user account for day to day work not an admin account
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/windows_security_whynot_admin.mspx
to set passwords up to login to your computer
'''what is a limited user account? Also, I am now busy adding a password to my computer and making all files private through User Accounts. Would that help do you think?'''
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/usercpl_create_password.mspx
(IIRC at one time by default XP setup an Administration account with a nul default password, an F8 reboot would get you in by just using the return key when the password prompt showed ) P.S. as mentioned method 3 in this article http://www.slideshare.net/passexpert/six-methods-to-crack-windows-admin-password-remove-unknown-windows-admin-password. Rather a serious security hole.
'''"oooh, sorry, the above paragraph is way past my limited knowledge? Will read the article again and get back to you. Thank you so much for your help so far. :)'''