melissaw72 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I received an email from a past friend, with a link (that I didn't click on) advertising something. So I replied to ask her to please take me off of her email list, and the email bounced back, saying it could not be delivered to that address. WTF? How is this possible, for someone to send an email, then have the reply be undeliverable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloane Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I have had old friends email me, telling me that I have been sending them all kinds of spam advertisements (everything from 'Orphanages Asking for Money in Africa', to 'Penis Enlargements'). And these emails were from an email that I haven't used in 4+ years. It could be possible that something like this has occurred. Are you still friends with this person, and have other forms of contact (like phone #, or Facebook)? If so you might want to just send them a casual message. If not, I would block the email address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mim Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 It sounds like their account has been compromised, and you got phished. I would block the address and, if you can, let the friend know what's going on, like Sloane said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 I'm not friends with this person anymore. In fact I haven't heard from her in at least 2-3 years. This was her email address (the one sent) that I always used, and there isn't another one that I know of. I don't even know where she lives anymore, no phone number, no FB, nothing. I just know her first and last name. How do you go about blocking an email address on a MAC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloane Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Then I would just go straight ahead and block the email address. I can (almost) guarantee this person has no idea her account has been compromised. I don't use MAC, I have a HP laptop with Yahoo! Mail integrated email providers. Do you have a special email through a MAC email address? The way you block email addresses are usually through your actual email provider (Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, AOL, etc.) and not necessarily through your desktop. So depending on your email provider depends on the process. In example, with yahoo, you simply type in the address and click a button to block it. I don't know much (okay, ANYTHING) about MACs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 (edited) Thanks. I have verizon and use web mail. Actually I'll ask my parents how to block an address; they might know better than me. Thank you for the advice. Edited April 18, 2014 by melissaw72 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainweather Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 you'll have to block the email through verizon (and not through the mail application). open up your email in your browser and if you google "verizon email blocking sender," there should be a tutorial on how to do it. every email provider is different. i have gmail and recently learned how to do it there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 (edited) you'll have to block the email through verizon (and not through the mail application). open up your email in your browser and if you google "verizon email blocking sender," there should be a tutorial on how to do it. every email provider is different. i have gmail and recently learned how to do it there. Ok, thank you! ETA: I figured it out; thank you very much! Edited April 18, 2014 by melissaw72 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s4ndm4n2006 Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 I received an email from a past friend, with a link (that I didn't click on) advertising something. So I replied to ask her to please take me off of her email list, and the email bounced back, saying it could not be delivered to that address. WTF? How is this possible, for someone to send an email, then have the reply be undeliverable? Spam and possible Phishing scam. The goal is to get you to click on the link in order to get your information from you and it uses a name/address from your contacts in order to fool you into thinking it's legitimate. Good that you didn't click on the link. just spam it and move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted July 23, 2014 Author Share Posted July 23, 2014 I'm glad I didn't click on it either. I hate spam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
confused Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 I have had that happen to me. My e-mail sent out spam to everyone in my address book. I only knew because a few bounced back. I sent an e-mail telling people not to open the other one. We had a computer virus. Good thing you didn't click on the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt07 Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 (edited) I have had that happen to me. My e-mail sent out spam to everyone in my address book. I only knew because a few bounced back. I sent an e-mail telling people not to open the other one. We had a computer virus. Good thing you didn't click on the link. That happened to me also. Apparently it was an ad for buying Viagra online. Since that happened, I no longer maintain address books online. ETA: I also don't use Google calendar and other such cloud tools because if it is that easy to hack into email, what other things might they be finding out? Maybe it's just me being paranoid, but I prefer to keep my info local on my computer. Edited July 23, 2014 by jt07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovOidampUle Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 WTF? How is this possible, for someone to send an email, then have the reply be undeliverable? I had something similar happen to me once; the email said it was from my friend, but it wasn't from her e-mail address. There are a lot of ways email information can be manipulated to make it seem that it's coming from somewhere it isn't. There is the email address that the email is supposed to be from. There is a reply-to address which tells your computer where to send replies. It's usually the same, but not always. Amazon might want to send you order information from one address, but receive questions about orders at another address. So their originating address and reply-to addresses will be different. And there's a "name" for the email address -- that's how your actual name shows up on the message instead of just the email address. Some reasons your reply may have bounced: I think an email server can reject emails to a certain address; some addresses might just be for sending messages. Or your friend's account may have been closed after it was flagged from spamming. If you want to learn more, find out how to "view message headers" or "view original message." There will be a mess of information, but some of the fields are clearly labeled. If you don't see your friends actual e-mail address anywhere, it wasn't sent directly from her account. You should look her up in your address book and send an e-mail to that account. In the case of my friend, I think her facebook contacts were hacked (or something), but not her e-mail address book. The spam came to the email I use for facebook and other annoying social sites, and the message didn't originate from her account... Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted July 23, 2014 Author Share Posted July 23, 2014 Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Something happened today also again from another email address ... an email came with a link, and I looked at the return address and it was legit so I opened up what was sent. It was for this weight loss crap. So I replied back to her and it went back to her (unlike with the other email address I was talking about). I figured she just sent some stupid email. But FUCK because I opened it. Because then a little while later I got an email from someone that was clearly spam (I had no idea of who the person and the return address was of) so I didn't open it. BUT, it was set up just like the one I had gotten from my friend at the legit address. I just tried calling her but she wasn't answering her phone. So I emailed and am waiting back for her response to see if she knew she sent that email. Sorry if this doesn't make sense. But I have a small feeling I opened a link that I shouldn't have today, about white kidney bean extract for weight loss. Now that I am awake and "with it" I think it was spam. Everything was legit about it the email address though ... it came from a friend, I replied and it went back to that friend. There wasn't anything odd about it other than the link when I opened it. SHIT. I'm waiting for this person to call me or write me back about it right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovOidampUle Posted July 23, 2014 Share Posted July 23, 2014 That sounds a lot like what happened to my friend. The link was for a weight loss product. In my case, the website itself wasn't malicious. It didn't install anything on my computer of mess up my internet browser. They just wanted my eyeballs for a few seconds. So there's probably no harm done. And they already had your e-mail address from before; I don't think they "harvested" it or anything when you clicked on the link (though, I guess it's possible). I've done the same thing, so don't feel too bad. Clicking is what we do. Not clicking takes a real effort of awareness and will. I'll damn near click on anything as long as it's blue and underlined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt07 Posted July 24, 2014 Share Posted July 24, 2014 That sounds a lot like what happened to my friend. The link was for a weight loss product. In my case, the website itself wasn't malicious. It didn't install anything on my computer of mess up my internet browser. They just wanted my eyeballs for a few seconds. So there's probably no harm done. And they already had your e-mail address from before; I don't think they "harvested" it or anything when you clicked on the link (though, I guess it's possible). I've done the same thing, so don't feel too bad. Clicking is what we do. Not clicking takes a real effort of awareness and will. I'll damn near click on anything as long as it's blue and underlined. Ah, darn it, I clicked on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 That sounds a lot like what happened to my friend. The link was for a weight loss product. In my case, the website itself wasn't malicious. It didn't install anything on my computer of mess up my internet browser. They just wanted my eyeballs for a few seconds. So there's probably no harm done. And they already had your e-mail address from before; I don't think they "harvested" it or anything when you clicked on the link (though, I guess it's possible). I've done the same thing, so don't feel too bad. Clicking is what we do. Not clicking takes a real effort of awareness and will. I'll damn near click on anything as long as it's blue and underlined. LOL me too I finally got in touch with her, and she said her emailed had been hacked. Everyone in her email address book got the emails plus other people (Idk who though if they weren't in her address book?). 100s of people got it. And she hadn't known until I told her. She was so thankful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovOidampUle Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 I'm glad there's still one person willing to tell people their account got hacked. I don't tell people because I assume their inbox is already flooded with the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 She told me because she didn't want me to open anything from her no matter what it was. I think it was caught right at the beginning, before everyone got more spam email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s4ndm4n2006 Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 That sounds a lot like what happened to my friend. The link was for a weight loss product. In my case, the website itself wasn't malicious. It didn't install anything on my computer of mess up my internet browser. They just wanted my eyeballs for a few seconds. So there's probably no harm done. And they already had your e-mail address from before; I don't think they "harvested" it or anything when you clicked on the link (though, I guess it's possible). I've done the same thing, so don't feel too bad. Clicking is what we do. Not clicking takes a real effort of awareness and will. I'll damn near click on anything as long as it's blue and underlined. wow. That's pretty dangerous behavior for the health of your computer. That it takes effort to resist clicking is, I mean. I can't count how many emails i get daily that are full of links and probably most are harmless but if it's not an expected email, or from a very well known sender, I don't click on squat. 90% or more of the links are in spam or phishing emails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovOidampUle Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 wow. That's pretty dangerous behavior for the health of your computer. That it takes effort to resist clicking is, I mean. I can't count how many emails i get daily that are full of links and probably most are harmless but if it's not an expected email, or from a very well known sender, I don't click on squat. 90% or more of the links are in spam or phishing email I have three different inboxes: personal, business, and "and email address required for account." Google manages to keep most of the spam out it. My personal account is actually 98% personal mail. I have to tell meetup.org to stop bothering me, I think, but other than that, it's just people I know. The "spam" account I almost never check, and if there is a link in there, I assume it is actually spam. The business account is mostly to track amazon orders and that sort of thing. If there's a link in there, I won't click on it because, best case scenario, it will link to something incredibly boring like a credit card statement. But since this about self-control, maybe we should move it to the ADD forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovOidampUle Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 And not two seconds after I entered the last message, my mom sends me a link for debt forgiveness she found on Obama's facebook page. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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