# Some kind of identity theft attempt? Never seen this before **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 18, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134 "2015-08-18T01:37:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/1 "2015-08-18T01:37:06Z")
I had two messages in my Comcast email in box telling me that two messages that were attempted to two [Yahoo.com](http://Yahoo.com) addresses (neither of which I know about or tried to send to) had failed. Then I had several messages from mailer-daemon mentioning the mail failure, that were mostly written in Russian (which I recognize because I studied it in school). Am I at risk for anything? How did someone attempt to send messages using my email? If I have been hacked, what should I do - contact Comcast? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/2 "2015-08-18T01:41:09Z")
BTW, I have already changed my email password, and I have stopped leaving my email logged in even when I’m not looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/3 "2015-08-18T02:23:28Z")
This happened to me when someone(some bot?) spoofed my email address…basically sent out a bunch of spam using my email address as the sender. I changed my passwords and the mailer-daemon messages tailed off. But I don’t know if you can protect against spoofing attacks. All it takes is for your email to be on a list somewhere, whether it’s a facebook contact list or some hacked database. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/4 "2015-08-18T04:08:50Z")
So what’s the point of a spoofing attack? What are they trying to accomplish? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/5 "2015-08-18T04:16:23Z")
No one is going to open an email from [Russianhacker@scam.ru](mailto:Russianhacker@scam.ru), but they might open one from Roderick Femm, Esq. Especially people who know you. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-kind-of-identity-theft-attempt-never-seen-this-before/728134/6 "2015-08-18T04:21:45Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > So what’s the point of a spoofing attack? What are they trying to accomplish? Hiding who it really came from, but using a verifiable email address. I’m surprised you haven’t encountered this before, this method has been used since the 90s.