Returned mail I never sent

I keep getting returned mail from all over the world which I never sent. It seems someone is using my email to send mail. These sent messages do not show up on my computer or mail until they are returned. How can I stop this?

ajaamy, welcome to Apple Discussions.
Your email address got hijacked, via malware, from a Windows PC that had your address in its mail application. Then the person, usually a spammer, that hijacked your address used it to send out spam. Since the spam message was sent to a large numnber of other addresses, some of these addresses are no longer valid. Therefore you got the returned mail error message. Just ignore it. Many of us get these messages. Don't worry, since there are no known malware that affect Macs like this.
 Cheers, Tom

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I forgot the answers to my security questions, and the reset e-mail was never sent. How do I notify apple that they never sent me the reset e-mail? Thank you.

I'm trying to download apps on my new iphone 5s, and I forgot the answers to my security questions. The reset e-mail was never sent. How do I notify apple that they never sent me the reset e-mail? Thank you.

Hello there, movies989.
The following Knowledge Base article provides some great steps for issues with Apple ID security questions and contacting Apple Support:
Apple ID: All about Apple ID security questions
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5665
Of particular use in your case:
What should I do if I don't remember the answers to my Apple ID security questions?
Try answering them at least once to see if you can get them right, even if you are not sure you remember the answers to your security questions.
If you are confident you can't remember them, try one of the following:
If you have three security questions and a rescue email address
sign in to My Apple ID and select the Password and Security tab to send an email to your rescue email address to reset your security questions and answers.
If you have one security question and you know your Apple ID passwordsign in to My Apple ID and select the Password and Security tab to reset your security question.
If you have one security question, but don't remember your Apple ID password
contact Apple Support for assistance. Learn more about creating a temporary support PIN to help Apple confirm your identity when you contact Apple Support.
Note: If you have forgotten your password and answer your security questions incorrectly too many times in a row, you will be unable to try to answer your security questions for a period of time. During that time you will not be able to reset your password and will not have access to your account.
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
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Returned emails I never sent

Every day I receive returned emails that I've never sent. They're often for things like Vaigra and other junk. Is my computer being used to send these emails without my knowing it? If so, how do I stop it?

Is my computer being used to send these emails without my knowing it?
Probably not. Anyone who knows what to do can make an email look like it came from whatever address they want.
(54323)

TS3276 Mail Delivery Failure Msgs for emails I Never Sent

On Feb 7 I received 37 Mail Delivery Failure messages, but I never sent any of these emails. I was not even on my Time Warner email account that day. This is a recurring issue. Any suggestions?

Potential Spam. I would also change my e-mail password just in case your account has been hacked.
http://blog.onlymyemail.com/delivery-status-notification-failure-virus/

I keep recieving notifications that my e-mails could not be delivered, e-mails however that I had never sent in the first place!!!Why is this and what can I do

I keep getting notifications that my e-mails (which I never sent!!) could not be delivered to recipients unknown to me. I can find no trace of them in my "messages sent" file, despite of the fact that I have the option of keeping copies of sent messages set "on". What can I do to find out what is going on and to overcome this annoyance -and perhaps peril-?

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_%28email%29
Wikipedia write much better than I do.

Bounced back emails I have never sent!

I am receiving at least 50 emails everyday from:
Mail Delivery System <[email protected]>
Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
However, I NEVER sent eamils to the email addresses that they are bounce back from!!! What can I do to stop this?

Jo-Jo ,
This sounds like your email account has been compromised, someone has used it to send spam emails out, and you are receiving those back.
ASAP change you password for the email account to something different, difficult to guess. Change the Secret Questions and Answers for your account security profile. Run virus/spyware/malware scan on your machines.
Once this is done and your email account is secure, you will probably still continue to receive those delivery failed messages for few days until its all filtered out from the spam messages that were sent from your account.
Hope this helps, if you have any other Questions or Concerns, please let us know.
~STA

HT1277 I receive delivery failed emails for emails I never sent

I receive "delivery failed" emails for emails I never sent to email addresses I don't recognize. Who do I contact?

Welcome to the Internet. Here, have some spam. :-)
You're either being spammed (and your mail filters aren't fully dialed in and set to ignore or delete this dreck), or your email address was forged (as the return address) by a spammer sending out messages to others and folks that don't know how to properly configure and operate an email servers are now causing collateral damage by reflecting that spam run back at you. (No spammer really wants to deal with all those bounced messages, after all.)
It's possible that your mail address has been acquired by a spammer, but it's equally possible that - if your email address has a common name or string to the left of the @ sign - that the spammers determined your address by brute force, too.
And yes, make sure your email passwords are not in the stock attack dictionaries (the list of the five or ten thousand most common passwords are widely known), and (if your ISP permits it) use SSL/TLS (encrypted) transports to access your ISP mail server.

Returned mail

I am getting mail returned for no apparent reason, other than they always appear to be sent to msn.com addresses. One of the addresses was actually sent to msn.com but returned as hotmail.com (??). There were several other email addresses (aol, comcast, .mac) that were delivered fine. Here is the text of the returned mail:
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<[email protected]>
(reason: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be re...l/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support)
<[email protected]>
(reason: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be re...l/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support)
<[email protected]>
(reason: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be re...l/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mx1.hotmail.com.:
MAIL From:<[email protected]> SIZE=12281
<<< 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable
What gives? Thanks.

Hi, just came to the boards to see if I could get help as I have inexplicably begun having this exact same issue with one msn.com email I correspond with frequently (a good friend). Up to now, no issues. It's a good friend and we email back and forth frequently.
Did you ever get resolution?
Strange for me is I sent an email just this a.m., had just gotten a response this eve and replied back to get the bounceback message as you quote. I wonder if my friend didn't somehow unknowingly invoke settings? Hard to imagine, but I don't know msn.com . Thanks

Invitation E-mail is Never Received

I have sent an invitation e-mail to one of my users, but the e-mail is never received. I have been monitoring our mail server log file, and the e-mail has never arrived (after more than 24 hours). Three other people received their invitations without problem. I have deleted this user and re-sent the invitation several times, but the e-mail is never received. It's not being blocked by a spam filter; it's never seen by our mail server. What can I do to either resolve or troubleshoot this further?

Yeah i just finished chatting with Adobe support. Same thing. They will get back to me for a solution. It's a problem due to domain name. Because i tried to send invitation to hotmail adress and it worked, but no for a @domain.com

Subscription mails - verification of sent mails

Hi all,
does anybody know wether it´s possible to prove that subscription mails are really sent to every subscribed user? Means that (like in Sent Items box in MS Outlook) sent mails are stored anywhere? The reason why asking is that my customer have the rule of evidence from a juridical point of view.
Any hint is welcome.
Thanks,
Andre

Hi Andre
I am not sure that this information is stored in the portal, but it might be stored on the Windows 2003 server, if that is the origin of the smtp-server you are using. And if it isn't stored there pr. default I would assume that it is possible to higher the logging level or whatever, so the sent notifications will be stored.
If the portal does not return any subscription mail error, and the mails have not reached the subscribers, you will also most likely be able to see the mails on the smtp-server.
But if you have to prove that some mails already have been sent, then that is not much help to you.
Hope it helps.
Kind regards,
Martin

Returned mail messages since ios4 upgrade

Hello!
If this has been answered before, I apologize, but I can't find anything on this particular issue. Since my upgrade to iOS4 (I have a 3G 8g iPhone), I have been getting returned mail messages in my AOL inbox from addresses that I have not sent mail to. I have read mail from these places, but not Sent mail. Just last night my aunt sent me a few emails, and said she was getting weird emails back with number codes in them. Does this new upgrade send some type of automatic receipt once you read an email? Is there a way to turn that off? I can't find any info on this at all. Anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks!!!

Well, I haven't figured out how it happened, because I only use my phone to check my mail anymore, but somehow my AOL away message was turned on and spam info (pharmacy info) was entered in the data box. So every email that was sent to me received this info back over the last 2 days. I have since turned off the away message, but don't know how it was activated to begin with. I guess it was more an AOL/SPAM issue than having to do with the upgrade....I hope.

Returned Mail: See Transcript for details

If someone from the outside world send an email to a non-exisitant email address at my domain, an NDR is sent out with an attachment named "Returned Mail: See Transcript for details". This transcript includes the IP of my frontend Exchange server. Is there anyway to block this information from being included in the transcript?

Hi There,
You can install the Anti-Spam agent on your HUB server and enable recipient filtering and configure Exchange to reject messages to non AD users.
See link below for step by step guide.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201691(v=exchg.80).aspx
Exchange Blog:
www.ntweekly.com
MCSA, MCSE, MCITP:SA, MCITP:EA, MCITP:Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010,MCTS:Virtualization

I have a MacBook and am running Mac OS X 10.6.8, I thought I couldn't get a virus but a friend recently told me she got one of those stupid link emails from me that I never sent. What can I do?

I have a MacBook and am running Mac OS X 10.6.8, I thought I couldn't get a virus but a friend recently told me she got one of those stupid link emails from me that I never sent. What can I do?

When a virus infects a Windows PC one of the first things it does is mine the PC's e-mail address book. It will then send out e-mails containing itself to addresses in the address book using another address from the address book as the sending address.
The only way you can tell where the e-mail comes from is to look at the long headers. In Mac Mail View>Message>Long Headers.
So it probably wasn't sent from your Mac but from a PC who has both your addresses in his mail .

1000's of Returned Mail messages every day!

Hi All,
I am receiving thousands of Returned Mail and Undeliverable Mail messages every day in my Mail application.
Here is the problem description:
I used to have a MobileMe (.mac) account and a corresponding email address. I did not renew my MobileMe account this year. Now, whenever Mail receives any valid message to my existing RoadRunner email address, that same message is being automatically resent to the defunct .mac email address and since it is no longer a valid address, it is being returned to my inbox as Undeliverable or Returned. The same message is being resent apparently many many times for each valid message I receive in my inbox. The result is literally thousands of undeliverable email messages clogging my account. Each time it is resent, it copies all the headers and the original message so by the time the same message is received over and over again the message sizes are well over 2 MB in size! It is an endless repeating cycle.
What I have done so far:
Called RoadRunner - they said to delete and reinstall Mail
Deleted Mail and reinstalled
Deleted Mail preferences
Turned off all iSync functions
Searched for and deleted all references to the invalid .mac email address on my computer
Turned off all notifications from iCal
Upgraded OS from 10.5.x to 10.6.7
None of this has stopped the torrents of messages…PLEASE HELP.
Would not like to have to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS from scratch if possible.
Here is what a typical returned message header looks like (Email address blocked out by me):
This message was created automatically by the mail system (ecelerity).
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
[email protected] (after RCPT TO): 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias: [email protected]
Reporting-MTA: dns; hrndva-oedge04.mail.rr.com
Arrival-Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:25:39 +0000
Remote-MTA: dns; nk11b01-smtp-mx006.mac.com
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias: [email protected]
Last-Attempt-Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:25:39 +0000
Action: failed
Final-Recipient: rfc822; [email protected]
Status: 5.1.1
------ This is a copy of the original message, including all headers. ------
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=pN6kzQkhXdmdOr6Akjoh3kGBD/S3UyPMKQp53EJY+ro= c=1 sm=0 a=9Xqw66NJkoB9GertGQDpPQ==:17 a=n-kJSqksAAAA:8 a=nz4EaHi66Edgnas9-7sA:9 a=98jSFH7WqmUA:10 a=ayC55rCoAAAA:8 a=qyzg_sS0DHm6ZXvf9RAA:9 a=udDd3TAlAAAA:8 a=A-Ay9Xv3AAAA:8 a=13-m3CVyAAAA:8 a=Nq7WNfEEaPaVeQek9H8A:9 a=nCRpLGje-JdQZUhY4UwA:7 a=xKgkma0IJD8A:10 a=pdFTHh6Ffp0A:10 a=uqRLPZCTzCUA:10 a=60GRva4_FlB0_GV7:21 a=0a-loXuVl3_jPVwJ:21 a=9Xqw66NJkoB9GertGQDpPQ==:117
X-Cloudmark-Score: 0
X-Originating-IP: 50.90.215.242
From: <[email protected]>
Received: from [50.90.215.242] ([50.90.215.242:47870] helo=[10.0.1.4])
    by hrndva-oedge04.mail.rr.com (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
    (ecelerity 2.2.3.46 r()) with ESMTP
    id 73/88-28036-3CA69BD4; Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:25:24 +0000
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status; boundary="lvFcVbMq4Bmrb7Nos44Q+yDizFUn+uvxvchPCg=="
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1084)
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:24:24 +0000
Subject: Mail Delivery Failure
Resent-Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:25:23 -0400
Resent-From: Joe Blow <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Resent-To: [email protected]
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
--lvFcVbMq4Bmrb7Nos44Q+yDizFUn+uvxvchPCg==
Content-Type: text/plain
This message was created automatically by the mail system (ecelerity).
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
[email protected] (after RCPT TO): 550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias: [email protected]
THANK YOU FOR READING AND HELPING IF YOU CAN.
Bern

Are the returned messages showing all different recipients? If so, it's possible someone has hacked into your MobileMe account and is using it to send out spam.
A brute force spamming will result in thousands of failed return messages. That happens when a spammer sends out mail to a know mail server, such as Hot Mail. They'll send the same message to [email protected], [email protected], etc. Do this for thousands of addresses and many will be returned by the receiving server as undeliverable because there is no user on their system by [email protected], and any other address with no match.
Or, your address is simply being spoofed by a prolific spammer. They picked up your email address as a valid address and are spoofing it in the From field. Doesn't matter that the thousands of emails that went out from them with your name as the sender didn't come from you, the receiving server just assumes it did and you get the bounce messages.
For the first, go in and change your password and see if that stops the flow. For the latter, there's really nothing you can do. Spammers will only use someone's address for a short while. Otherwise, the "from" address gets blacklisted automatically by mail servers, which would cut off the spammer's ability to send out more crap in your name. Then it's someone else who has to put up with it for a few days.

Mail missing from "Sent Mail" folder.

I searched my sent mail files for an email I sent out about 3 months ago. To my amazement, everything in the file before the date of Sept. 23 opened up with a line that went something like: "In order to view this document, you must first go online and download it." When I checked in the menu, it showed that Mail was online. I tried rebuilding my mail and every sent letter before 9/23 was deleted. When I go to my backup files, Mail tells me that the files are not Mail files. I'm perplexed, and haven't a clue as to what to do. This is not the first time I have had lost mail problems. Is Mail full of major bugs? Should I go back to Entourage? I never had a problem when I used it, but hate using any Microsoft applications.
PowerMac 2 ghz G5 DP Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I have this same problem. My Sent Messages.mbox says it is 1.94 GB so I know the messages are there. So far, I have found no solutions. Hopefully someone out there has some info - please!

Returned mail I never sent

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