How can I tell if my contact list has been hijacked?

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

I received an email from my cousin saying he thought my contact list had been hacked.  He had received an email from me that he knew I didn't send.  I have had no other indications that my email has been hijacked.  Is there a way I can tell for sure if I'm not getting other notes from my friends?  Could he have received spam that just happened to be my name?

2

I received an email from my cousin saying he thought my contact list had been hacked.  He had received an email from me that he knew I didn't send.  I have had no other indications that my email has been hijacked.  Is there a way I can tell for sure if I'm not getting other notes from my friends?  Could he have received spam that just happened to be my name?

3

In addition to Dick's information....

 

If your contacts are online with your email provider, you should change your password and security questions for the online account.

 

 

 

4

Hi weaversg,

 

If your address book had been harvested, it is likely that you would be hearing from a number of your contacts about spam coming from "you."  While your contact list may have been compromised, there are other possibilities that are probably more likely if you are only hearing from one contact.  Perhaps someone else's contact list was stolen with your address and the address of the person you are "spamming" both included.  Or your "recipient's" address book was stolen and spam sent to them has your address spoofed in the "From" field to entice the person to open the message.  One thing you can check is if the spam is coming from your account or whether it originates from an account that is not yours.  I recently had my name spoofed on a message to a Facebook contact, but the message was sent from an email address and provider that were not mine - so the spammer likely got my name from public FB comments I made on my friend's public posts.

5

Since I have only had the one reply regarding spam sent from my account, I'm doubting I've been hacked.  The message I received from my cousin was a screen print of the message he received and no header information was available.  He deleted the message so there's no way to tell.  If I hear more, I'll update my post.

6

It's on my PC behind the firewall.