Have you ever opened your email to, say, browse through the latest, exciting newsletters from your favorite fashion, technology, or sports brand, or to reply to a business mail, only to stumble on ever-irritating spam emails?. If you live on planet Earth and use email technology, that is almost a definite experience. But it gets even crazier: have you ever received such spam emails from your own email? Yes? Then this article is for you. Read on!.
Why Am I Getting Spam Emails From Myself?
Aggrieved, wary netizens have taken to online communities to report spam issues, which have been a notoriously common menace nowadays. Strangely enough, reports about receiving spam emails from one’s own email address have equally swarmed in. And no, it is not a glitch or system malfunction. The technical word for this phenomenon is called ‘spoofing’ (sometimes referred to as ‘From: spoofing’), and it simply refers to what spammers and scammers do to make emails look like they are coming from someone else other than themselves.
In other words, they fake email addresses, concealing the real address from which they send spam emails. These spam emails can appear to come from a friend of yours, a company you have affiliations, or even you. This is a common scam technique, and there are a few reasons why spammers opt for it.
Why do I get such Emails?
- When scammers scam you using spoofed emails with your email address, they hope to get their email through your spam filter to you, since your spam protection thinks you sent yourself the email. It works because your spam filter assumes you sent the email to yourself, perhaps as a reminder or to safely store an email. This is clever and hard to defend against, but usually only comes with a little threat if you understand how they work.
- Another reason they send you such emails is to appear convincing. They would usually claim that they were able to send the email with your email address because they successfully hacked your account. Threats would often follow to share your sensitive, personal information (usually some alleged proof that you visited a pornsite, or compromising shots from your webcam) to your contact list except you redeem your account with a fee.
Do I have to Worry?
Getting spam emails from your own email address can be quite scary and unsettling, but not to worry. Spammers and scammers usually have a list of emails (which they often acquire from breached sites, chatrooms, mailing lists, or purchase from dishonest newsletter services) to which they send automated spam emails for scam schemes, also using the recipient’s address to trick them into thinking they’ve been hacked. In order words, you are not necessarily a target; you just happen to be on a widely random list. But what do you do about it? Read on!
What should I do?
There’s very little you can do to prevent spammers from spoofing your address, as there are no established email protocols that ensure the email address entered in the ‘From:’ field has to match that of the sender. However, understanding what they’re actually doing takes the scare away from their tactics. Nonetheless, you might want to double-check that you really haven’t been hacked by looking out for red flags such as,
- Unfamiliar emails in your email Sent folder. It’s a positive sign if you find that no strange emails were sent from your email box.
- Notification that your other accounts have possibly been compromised. Security alerts about a possible breach in some of your email-linked accounts is a danger sign.
- Inability to sign-in with your password. This is a telltale sign that your account has indeed been compromised.
If none of these is the case, your account is most probably secure. What you can do, then, is to treat such spams like you treat other spams: ignore them and, if they irritate you a lot, label them as spam, or send them to the spam folder. If it does happen more frequently than you would like, it might help changing your passwords, which is a much safer measure to take than attempting to block your address, which may lead to frustrating situations like losing/missing genuine emails. One thing to not do is to open suspicious files or attachments as they could be a part of a phishing scheme. That’s about all you need to know about handling spam emails addressed from your email.
Related Topics
- Why You Might Be Getting a Lot of Spam Emails Lately
You might be having a situation called email or spam bombing. When scammers intend to cover up the tracks of their underhanded activity, they send a lot of spams to hide specific clues and perhaps force you to abandon your email.
- How Can I Permanently Block Emails?
The most straightforward method is to do it directly from your email client’s webpage. Other methods include using spam blockers like Spamfighter, Commodo Cybersecurity.
- How Do I Know If an Email is Spoofed?
You can tell by looking at the email header. That is, the box which contains the “From: To: Date: and Subject:” information. It usually contains clues as to where the email really originated from.
