MBP OS X 10-11-4 Mail Hacked 2 times in 6 mos. Cause and Answers? Protocol to follow after hackingl?

Why do you think that you mail has been hacked?

If you suspect your email account has been hacked, change the password on your email account to a strong password.

Duane has a good suggestions above.

¿Are you sure that it was YOUR email that was hacked?

Some time ago, when random strangers complained of SPAM emails with me listed as Sender, research showed that the "from" address was fake, and those emails did not come from my computer or my email account at all.

It appears that someone with whom I had corresponded had their PC hacked, and turned into a spambot. The spambot "ran their address book" as the faked sender of spam emails, and made it look like a few of them came from me.

Since I knew for certain this was not my problem, I did nothing (except complain to the possible sending ISP) and the problem subsided on its own.

It is possible that someone gained access to your email account. But it is more likely the scenario described by Grant. Someone is pretending to be you to fool others. Someone can send email which appear to be from your email address even though they do not have access to your email account.

You are not the source of the problem. Spoofing email addresses is as simple as putting someone else's return address on a snail mail envelope. There is nothing you can do. Spammers have many ways to find and use anyone's email address as the from address in an email. They may have a program that cycles through all combinations of possible email addresses and the program automatically inserts each return address in their spam emails. or, they have purchased email address lists from one of the many outfits gathering email addresses. You email address may have been included in the list.

Considering the number of SPAM emails I get daily, some tagged as sent from my friends and associates, you should simply change your email account password, and go on about your business.

Your computer is extremely unlikely to be compromised.

Sending emails that say " that email that you may or may not have received, and have undoubtedly already discarded, may or may not have come from me, but not deliberately, so you should ignore it" simply adds to the amount of useless email being sent across the Internet. Do not apologize -- you did not do it!

Get over it and move on.The Internet is a weird place, and stuff happens.

I think Bob and Grant already said it all. There is nothing you can do to stop someone from spoofing your email address. It does not imply that you have a weakness or hole in your security.