computer types-please help me out

[stonecoldsoonerfan]

i've been receiving just a TON of unusual spam emails lately. forgive me if i ask a stupid question, but it seems like i get back emails that appear to be sent by me that i never sent with fatal errors on them. below is an example.
---------------------------

Your message to: [email protected]
was blocked by our Spam Firewall. The email you sent with the following subject has NOT BEEN DELIVERED:

Subject: safe medication without a prescription




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Received: from aaa4gd87286859 (unknown [123.191.9.123])
by barracuda.ashevillesavings.com (Spam Firewall) with SMTP id E05FF235BA
for <[email protected]>; Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:24:17 -0400 (EDT)
To: "Andrew Andrew" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:24:15 +0800
From: "Stephen Rebecca" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Stephen Rebecca" <[email protected]>
Subject: safe medication without a prescription
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <46d101c7d293$c7ecd140$8f38fea9@aaa4gd87286859>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_4585_01C7D2D6.D1A5D950"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2527
Priority: normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
-------------------------------------------------------------------
another example below:
-----------
The original message was received at Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:29:38 -0400 (EDT)
from 122.2.63.11.pldt.net [122.2.63.11] (may be forged)

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<[email protected]>
(reason: 553 5.3.0 <[email protected]>... No such user here)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mail.ccomc.net.:
>>> DATA
<<< 553 5.3.0 <[email protected]>... No such user here
550 5.1.1 <[email protected]>... User unknown
<<< 503 5.0.0 Need RCPT (recipient)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from hypo1pjpq0ett1 (122.2.63.11.pldt.net [122.2.63.11] (may be forged))
by cleaner.caro.net (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id l6UCTa6r072404
for <[email protected]>; Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:29:38 -0400 (EDT)
(envelope-from [email protected])
To: "Alice Andrew" <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:36:24 -0700
From: "Patricia Gary" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Patricia Gary" <[email protected]>
Subject: Inexpensive private shipping of all pharmecuticals
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <e21101c7d323$f86197d0$0b3f027a@hypo1pjpq0ett1>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_DC05_01C7D2E9.3AFA17B0"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2527
Priority: normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
X-Greylist: Recipient e-mail whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (cleaner.caro.net [69.59.19.11]); Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:29:39 -0400 (EDT)
X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88/3819/Mon Jul 30 01:36:40 2007 on cleaner.caro.net
X-Virus-Status: Clean
-------------------------------------------

the davidlisa email account is mine. i certainly did not send them. why is it all of a sudden that i keep getting 2 dozen of these a day?

thanks in advance.

[OU Adonis]

Spamers can "spoof" email addresses. Obviously it doesn't come from you, but they can make it look like it did.

You can set the "reply to" address to anything. When someone sets their reply to address to your address you get all the bounce back emails.

[stonecoldsoonerfan]

wonderful. is there anything i can do to prevent this? can cox help me?

thanks for replying!

[OU Adonis]

About the only thing you can do is turn up your spam filters via support.cox.net. That most likely won't catch "bounced" emails that were spoofed though.

The way internet email works there are quite a few flaws and spammers take advantage of them.

Here is some resources on email spoofing (how they do it ect).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Email-Spoofing.html

[stonecoldsoonerfan]

thanks adonis. i owe you one. it's appreciated.