Electronics

[Lovethesea]

On Wednesday, I received an e-mail from one of my relatives that had been sent an email from my name but not my email address.  The address was from someone using webspeed.dk (Denmark) and contained a link to a website in Russia which redirected to a "weight-loss" product.

I have since researched this and have found no email forwarding has occurred, have changed all of my gmail passwords, did find that my relative was listed as someone that I email frequently from one of my email accounts, but otherwise cannot determine how this may have occurred.

Any suggestions on how this may have occurred and advice on how to prevent it in the future is greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

[Kachina624]

I used to get those things all the time.  When my 7 year old grandson sent weight loss information, I knew some had hijacked email addresses.  Since then, I've gotten them from many more people.  Just ignore them.  It's been a long time since I've gotten one.  Nothing to get upset about.

[Lovethesea]

Thank you for your reassurance, Kachina.

[Nataliesgramma]

Don't ever click on the links in those emails....

[chickenbutt]

Yup, it's just your standard spam mail.  I think it is really horrid that the ISPs cannot stop this kind of thing.  There should be a way.

I also most sincerely hope that she didn't click on anything within that email.  Actually, worrisome if she opened it.  

I would advise her to scan the heck out of her computer ASAP.

[Kachina624]

People do click on them because they're shown to be from a friend or relative as the sender.  However, no one should respond to them.

[Lovethesea]

@Nataliesgramma wrote:

Don't ever click on the links in those emails....

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Thank you. I didn't click on the link; I googled it and typed it into my browser.

[Lovethesea]

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@chickenbutt wrote:

Yup, it's just your standard spam mail.  I think it is really horrid that the ISPs cannot stop this kind of thing.  There should be a way.

I also most sincerely hope that she didn't click on anything within that email.  Actually, worrisome if she opened it.  

I would advise her to scan the heck out of her computer ASAP.

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Thank you, Chicken.  I didn't click on it.

I did run a complete scan on my computer and nothing was found.

[Lovethesea]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

People do click on them because they're shown to be from a friend or relative as the sender.  However, no one should respond to them.

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Thank you.  The original email was sent to my relative and she sent it to me to notify me.

[Lovethesea]

My concern is how the perpetrator obtained the info on my relative and me.