# Using my hotmail address to send out spam **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-my-hotmail-address-to-send-out-spam/240652 "2004-04-18T07:18:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![biddee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@biddee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biddee)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-my-hotmail-address-to-send-out-spam/240652/1 "2004-04-18T07:18:35Z")
Occasionally I will get a returned message in my junk mail folder saying something like [xyz@123.com](mailto:xyz@123.com) was not a valid email address etc. and then the body of the email is a spam message (which I have obviously not sent out). The name of the sender is also not my name, but the email address is. How and why do they do this and how can I stop it? ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-my-hotmail-address-to-send-out-spam/240652/2 "2004-04-18T10:32:14Z")
Someone is spoofing your email address in the “From:” field - this is pretty simple to do, and there isn’t really anything you can do to stop it. Won’t do anything to hurt you though. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-my-hotmail-address-to-send-out-spam/240652/3 "2004-04-18T14:34:05Z")
**Biddee,** you can read more about this phenomenon [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4738967&postcount=19) Be sure to read the **Eweek** mag article by Jim Rapoza. Not much you can do to stop it unless virus-writing becomes unpopular.