So what to do now. Keep getting emails saying 'delivery status notification.....' and it appears my email account is emailing random people. It is an o2 account, now owned by Sky. So any advice/ what to do now? Computer is running Avast and anti spyware. Its a home PC, and its started after my wife (not a euphanism!) sent me an email from her work
Thanks
It's probably not your account that's been hacked - they're just using your address as the 'from'/'reply-to' and relaying it through sky/o2 servers.
You get all the 'undeliverable' replies.
Happened to my wife a while back. It all died down after about 500 out of office replies 🙁
Without more details its hard to know, but it could just be that your address is being used by spammers else (spoofed). If that is the case, there is bugger all you can do except wait for it to calm down, which it will.
Ok, but can they get holdof any personal stuff from my PC?
I have had about 60 email notifications that just say " delivery status notification" all to various email accounts, none that i know or recognise. Very strange....
You might be able to check your "sent mail" folder - if that is filling up then they are using your account.
This is what happened to me years ago with a BTConnect account. I found a dedicated phone number to deal with this sort of thing from BT - no waiting at all, phone answered immediately - they were very helpful - suspended the account right away, changed password & helped me get it all sorted again. I expect o2/sky have a similar department.
EDIT: the data on your PC should be safe; as it's your email account which has been (potentially) compromised not your computer.
it's not going anywhere near your pc.
Imagine someone dropping 500 letters in a post box 200 miles from where you live with your address on the back as the 'if undelivered return to'.
Basically it's that, all peopel are being given is your email address and their automated software thinks you're the person who sent it so sends the 'I can't deliver that' message to you.
it's not going anywhere near your pc.
I'm almost certain that this is what's happening, but there's no harm in running a spyware scan and changing your email password as a precaution.
You say that "Computer is running Avast and anti spyware" - what anti-spyware? Do a scan with [url= http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/ ]MBAM[/url].
As for what you can do to stop it,
If it is due to your address being spoofed, then hopefully it should go away of its own accord after a little while. If I were you though I'd consider binning the account and using one not provided by your ISP. All other things aside, if and when you come to change providers you'll lose your current address and have to start again with a new one. Far better to have a Hotmail / Gmail etc account (and better still to have your own domain, but that's a longer discussion).
Cheers guys. Sky were useless as its an old o2 account and just suggested i change my password. As long as data is safe thats all i was really worried about, so thank you.
Steve
Cougar, its the Super anti spyware.
Cheers guys. Sky were useless as its an old o2 account and just suggested i change my password.
To be fair, that's not really "useless"
There is nothing whatsoever that than can do, even if they wanted to.
Bearing in mind that it's actually nothing to do with your email account, other than that's where the undeliverable replies are ending up.
@monkey's I would suggest you run a virus scan on your computer and change your password, it could have been your computer that's been hacked although quite possibly another friends who had your email address. I second @Cougars advice on email accounts.
Virus scan and spyware brought up a few threats. Now sorted, password then changed so will see if this solves the problem.