# Oh great. Spammers are now using my primary email address **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303 "2012-09-10T16:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/1 "2012-09-10T16:55:45Z")
Just wonderful. I periodically check my spam folder and find a plethora of messages sent (allegedly) from my primary email address. Gmail now says that it’s a known spammer address. I’ve had this address over a decade. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/2 "2012-09-10T17:03:59Z")
Are you sure? Almost everyone has a lot of spam sent from themselves (according to the headers) - it seems to be something that spammers do. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/3 "2012-09-10T20:58:48Z")
Change your password. Change it to something complex. Couldn’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/4 "2012-09-10T21:18:12Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Change your password. Change it to something complex. Couldn’t hurt. They’re not actually using my account, but joe-jobbing me. They’ve picked up my email address from somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/5 "2012-09-10T21:38:39Z")
I have a Yahoo! email account whose spam folder is filled with dozens of emails that appear to be from me, sent to myself and three other Yahoo! accounts with somewhat similar usernames (starting with the same four letters, anyway). There are also similar emails to me “from” those users. Online pharmacies, peni$ 3nl4rgement, the usual stuff. We’re all spamming each other now. We are all one. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/6 "2012-09-10T22:46:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > They’re not actually using my account, but joe-jobbing me. They’ve picked up my email address from somewhere. And yet Gmail says your address is a known spammer address? That seems odd. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/7 "2012-09-10T23:02:24Z")
Not really. They’ve obviously received a lot of email addressed as me. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/8 "2012-09-10T23:07:14Z")
Where does it show you that your address is a known spammer email? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/9 "2012-09-10T23:26:45Z")
How does an email that isn’t actually sent by you wind up in your Spam folder? Are the spammers cc’ing you or something? ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/10 "2012-09-10T23:49:31Z")
The Reply-To address is set by the original sender. I could send people an email that, at first glance, appears to be totally authentically sent by “Barack H. Obama \”. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/11 "2012-09-11T00:27:20Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > The Reply-To address is set by the original sender. I could send people an email that, at first glance, appears to be totally authentically sent by “Barack H. Obama \”. \Well, how about that. There it is. \ Nope. No angry replies. Guess I’m clear so far. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/12 "2012-09-11T07:15:39Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Where does it show you that your address is a known spammer email? If you open one of the spam emails, GMail will tell you why it’s been blocked. In this case it says, > [@GMail](#): > > We’ve found that lots of messages from _my email_ are spam ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/13 "2012-09-12T00:19:37Z")
That’s probably just an automated function that identifies e-mail with identical from and to addresses as probable spam. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/14 "2012-09-12T07:49:03Z")
I reckon the spammer’s a reader of the Dope. Because it’s stopped completely. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![guitarmax\_99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@guitarmax\_99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitarmax_99)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/15 "2012-09-17T13:14:40Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > The Reply-To address is set by the original sender. I could send people an email that, at first glance, appears to be totally authentically sent by “Barack H. Obama \”. That is something that gmail should do away with. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-great-spammers-are-now-using-my-primary-email-address/634303/16 "2012-09-17T18:13:45Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Just wonderful. I periodically check my spam folder and find a plethora of messages sent (allegedly) from my primary email address. Gmail now says that it’s a known spammer address. I’ve had this address over a decade. > > Fuckers. I get e-mails from spoofers. If I know, for example, [JohnDoe@Gmail.com](mailto:JohnDoe@Gmail.com), I might receive an e-mail from [JohnDoe@someunknowndomain.com](mailto:JohnDoe@someunknowndomain.com). If I see John Doe and open it accidentally, and click on the link (inevitably there is one) my firewall goes nuts. I actually did that on the first spoof I received and learned my lesson. Pity the folks without firewalls. Now I always check the full e-mail address. If it’s a spoof, I put it in the spam/junk mail folder without opening it. Had two yesterday and one today. If someone is actually using your e-mail account, contact your provider and be sure to change the password, if you are still able to do so.