Sometimes spammers manage to send spam using real email addresses that aren't theirs, and spam that goes to non-working email addresses is bounced back to you as undeliverable. But it doesn't necessarily originate from your computer, or mean your email account has been entered, nor are the emails sent to the addresses in your address book. I've had this happen to me a couple of times in the past and it stops after a day or two. However, I'd be concerned about a virus infection if any addresses were recognizable from my address book, particularly addresses that are valid. I suggest you do a virus scan on your computer and another scan with the free program Malwarebytes. Also, call a couple of your friends asking if they got any spam or other mail from you recently. (Don't email them about this: if you have a virus infection on your computer, you could be sending out a potential virus infection each time you send an email.) What is going out in these messages could be spam or it could be a virus infection waiting to happen for unsuspecting recipients. Lastly, what is the extension at the end of the hyperlink? Here is a link that might be useful: Malwarebytes

the most important thing is when you have a spam email on your pc do not open it but do not simply hit delete instead send it to your junk or spam mail bin you must do this for your filters to learn what they should set as junk they are learning filters so the more often you do that the quicker it learns what you deem junk and then it will direct them accordingly. All email clients have the ability to set up filters look in your settings area to see what filters are available. you can actually set it up so that you only get email from people in your address book if you desire. And definitely set up a separate account just for online activities. Plus if you have "friends" that are sending you forwarded emails that show long lists of people's email addresses that person is NOT your friend if they were they would be using the blind carbon copy feature so that NO addresses show up, this is the number one way that people's addresses get sold to spammers from those long lists of forwarded emails. If someone is doing that please send them a nice email educating them to how to use BCC and if they refuse ask them to take you off their mailing list. It is very simple to simply copy the email into a new email window and paste it and use BCC for the addresses do not continue the forwarded email with other addresses showing. Or highlight and delete any showing email addresses when forwarding. Be very careful what you sign up for! check your email settings to make sure you do have your spam filters turned on. Blind carbon copy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Email Etiquette: Courtesy No. 1 ~ Get to know the basics! Instant Office Assistant - E-Mail Courtesy those are good links to read learn and pass on to those who are breaking those netiquette rules!!

How you get SPAM... To begin with the bad guys send SPAM because that's how they make money, it's their job, it's how they make a living... We're talking millions of dollars here... A lot of spammers are very good at what they do and work extremely hard finding viably e-mail addresses. First off they have programs that search the internet, day and night, 24/7, checking every site and web page for anything that resembles an e-mail address... If you've posted your e-mail anywhere on the internet it's on a SPAM list somewhere... When I say anywhere I mean anywhere, on your own web page, in a Guestbook, on a forum post, MySpace, a blog, anywhere it can be seen it can be grabbed by a spammer. They also have programs that generate names for e-mail addresses, anything that can be found in a dictionary, telephone book, lists of baby names, lists of nick names and such... Anyone who has an internet connection can get a list of all the internet providers in the world... So all they have to do is tell the program to use those names with those providers... Instant SPAM list. Years ago my dial up provider gave their customers FREE web sites... To keep track of all the sites the provider used the customers e-mail addresses as the site names and then posted the list of the sites on the home page... Instant SPAM list.... ( Fortunately they've seen the error of their ways... lol ) Ever sign up for anything FREE on the internet or even registered purchased items and they asked if you wanted to be on their mailing list... Yep, instant SPAM list... Well not all the time but if you don't specify what kind of mail you want from them your address can end up on a SPAM list ( especially the FREE stuff ). Ever get a Forwarded e-mail from a friend with a zillion e-mail addresses in it that tells you to add your name to the list and send it to 10 of your friends... Yep, and if you Forward it, you just created another SPAM list. Ever get mail and you weren't quite sure who it was from or the Subject sounded interesting so you Opened it anyway.. Yep!!! You just added your address to an A #1 golden SPAM list because they know it's a good address and they can sell it to other spammers. Those are a just some of the ways they get your address... So what's the answer... Well, get a new address, pick something no one can guess with lots of letters with numbers mixed in, don't give it out to anyone, create a message rule that sends all your mail to the trash and you MAY stop the SPAM for a week or two... lol Seriously though, never, ever reply to SPAM or click on the links to be removed from their list unless you're absolutely positively sure who sent it... Sometimes reporting them to your internet provider works but after you report the first 100 or so your IP may get a little testy (lol)... Your best bet is to just delete them without opening... Sooner or later they'll slow down... Get a free e-mail account to use for registering for stuff, your internet friends and stuff like that... Only use the e-mail account from your internet provider for family and really close computer savvy friends... BTW, Rules to block e-mail addresses or IP's won't work because they use phony addresses... But, you could make a Rule like this.... Where the from line contains people not in my address book, Delete from Server... But the problem with that is if your friends change their e-mail address before telling you their mail won't get through, same goes for replies from any mail you send out to people not in your address book... Rita

Mike I am not sure setting up rules does much except offer peace of mind in the sort term. Spam is very invasive and the simplest way to control it is to safeguard your email address and delete all spam without opening any of it. Never show your email address where it can be seen by all and sundry, never open or reply to Spam, not even to be removed from the list because that simply tells them they have found a valid address to bug. If you are curious about a sender you can go in the back door as see what is written and who sent it. To see this right click on the email header in your inbox click Properties click Details click Message source. Now take this to full screen and look carefully, you will see the sender, the content message if there is one and rows and rows if seemingly gibberish. This gibberish is actually a picture usually. Be sure to do this is you get a returned email, it may not be returned but another spam ploy. I have provided a link below that might answer a few questions, it is Canadian but I suspect our issues are no different to yours. Here is a link that might be useful: Stopping Spam tips