Privacy Digest

Fast Forward's Help File: "Q: A couple of times in the past month, my e-mail address has been hijacked and used to send out spam. One day, I opened my mail to see more than 100 returned messages, all of which were using my e-mail to send spam! How can I prevent this?"

A: If you're sure you didn't have a virus or trojan take over your computer, the most likely explanation is that a friend's computer got hit with a virus.

The virus picked up your address from an address book, an e-mail message or some other document, then used it as a fake return address for the spam it sent out from the friend's machine.

It's nothing special to send a message that appears to come from somebody else's address -- you can do that with a few moments of tinkering in most e-mail programs.

(Read Original Article - Via washingtonpost.com - Technology - Fast Forward's Help File.)