Mac Mail hacked FIVE times!

Question

Level 1

0 points

Mac Mail hacked FIVE times!

I've had the same e-mail address for over twelve years and I'd never been hacked (or whatever it's called when everyone in your address book receives spam from you) until six months ago, when I bought a Macbook Pro and started using Mac Mail. Since then, my e-mail has been hacked five times. Each time, I've immediately changed my password to at least twenty random symbols, numbers, and upper and lowercase letters. It makes no difference; the e-mail address I use with Mac Mail still spams all and sundry.

What is going on? Is the culprit the Mac Mail program or could the computer itself be compromised? I bought the Mac with Windows without Outlook because Mac Mail seemed like a comparable substitute. Now I'm tempted to purchase the Outlook add-on to see if I still get hacked using it. What else can I do? No other family members (all on Dells or Acers) are having this problem and Verizon says the connection is secure. Any ideas are appreciated!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 7:50 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,711 points

Oct 22, 2013 8:01 PM in response to Uzername

when everyone in your address book receives spam from you

This is most often caused by someone else's computer getting hacked, getting their Address Book compromised, and disclosing your email Address.

The spammer then sends FAKE emails, tagged with your email address as the sender.

In this case, NOTHING about your Mac, or your email account has been compromised at all. Someone's compromised computer is sending spam and inserting your email address in the Sender field.

I had this experience, and it turned out to be a computer of someone I had bought something from on eBay, years before, had their computer hacked. My address was in their Address Book, so his computer sent out emails with my name as Sender.

--------

If you can get a receiver to show full headers, then cut-and-paste that text into a new email and send it to you, that can be analyzed to determine the actual sender.

Or a computer-savvy friend can look at the full headers and see who the actual sender is.

Reply

Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,984 points

Oct 22, 2013 8:12 PM in response to Uzername

Is this a free e-mail acct like hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc. They are commonly hacked/spoofed without even getting near your computer.

In a five-month period, about a dozen people I know with hotmail and msn addresses had their addresses compromised because of weaknesses in the basic hotmail system and MS server.

If you have a free acount, contact tech support for that service. Most have a recovery process to cleanse and salvage your account.

Most people who get these addies attacked have weak passwords.

Reply

Answer 3

Uzername Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2013 8:16 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That makes sense. Were you able to prevent it happening again? After being kicked off various e-mail lists (for spamming) three times, I quit rejoining them even after resetting my password. Didn't seem to be much point since I couldn't secure my e-mail.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 22, 2013 8:27 PM in response to Uzername

Were you able to prevent it happening again?

In my case, I looked at the "Full Headers" and determined where the fake emails were coming from. First, I wrote to the guy who was sending the emails (his real email address was still in there). He was helpless to do anything.

Then I wrote to webmaster @ that_ISP and complained with exactly the address of the computer sending the fake emails. They sent him a warning, then shut off his Internet Access until he could "clean up his act". He was not a professional spammer, it was just a hapless guy whose computer had been hacked.

Reply