Can anyone explain why I am receiving email that appear to originate from my email address? These messages usually land in my "junk" folder, and appear to contain suspicious links. How can I eliminate these from coming to me? Thank you in advance.
MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
Someone is spoofing your email address. They are sending emails which appear to originate from your email address.
There isn't anything that you can do other than filter the to junk.
Hi there Yvette,
Thank you for contributing to the Apple Support Communities.
Since you're receiving email that appears to originate from your email address and the messages land in your junk folder, it's likely that the real sender of the email is using a tactic called "spoofing" to send you fraudulent or malicious email. I'm glad that you've identified the suspicious links! It's a good rule of thumb to not click links from senders you don't recognize, or who may not be who they say they are.
For more information on dealing with these types of emails, see Identifying fraudulent "phishing" email. You may find the first section in the article useful--Find out who the email is really from.
It's usually up to your email provider to filter out spam and fraudulent email. What you can do (aside from regularly deleting the "junk" mail) may vary based on the provider.
If you're using an iCloud email address, the article I mentioned about has this advice:
What to do with suspicious iCloud emails
If you receive a suspicious email, select the message text so that it is highlighted. Choose Forward as Attachment from the Message menu (OS X Mail) or the Actions menu (Outlook). Send the email to abuse@icloud.com. This provides Apple's legal department and law enforcement with useful information to help prevent future phishing emails.
All the best.
Hello Joe_7399,
Thank you for the advice. This is helpful, in terms of understanding what this type of spam. I will send an example of the spoofed email to abuse@icloud.com, as indicated.
Much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Hello Duane,
I appreciate your response, as I didn't recognize the perpetrator's tact as "spoofing". While I've considered changing my email address, I have decided to first understand how my email address was flagged, so that I don't run into the same situation.
Much appreciated.
You can not prevent someone from spoofing your email address. They might get your email address from a friend's infected Windows PC or some place that you have done business with and is selling their email addresses or they just guessed it.
Receiving email messages from my email address
