Spoofed email from myself

[ANickG]

I recently received an email in my spam folder with source as my alternative BT email address   @btopenworld.com. I hesitated to open it but eventually looked at the text. I did not read it very carefully but the gist was that the sender had taken control of my machine and this would become apparent in a few days time.  I needed to pay some money to get control back again. I deleted the email and started looking for reports of similar incidents but haven't found any.

[Kimberlin]

It’s undoubtedly a spam email to try and trick you into clicking links in order for you to hand over your bank details.

Many people have also received a sad sextortion email spoofed to come from their own email address threatening to reveal all about their naughty goings on if they don’t click on a link to a dodgy crypto app. Delete and move on.

[mog_catto]

I received something very similar, when BT checked it was from a strange domain (and not from my own mailbox as first appeared!)..  as the other poster said, delete & move on!

[Linzi_H · Accepted solution]

Hi @ANickG 

Welcome to the Community.

I can see you've already had some great advice here, but just to add, we have some handy information on How to deal with spam in BT Email. 

If you receive any further emails, you can forward them for investigation to phishing@bt.com before deleting.

Linzi 

[ANickG]

I am feeling annoyed with myself for not trying to trace the source, just deleting it as a reflex action. Did you find out where the message actually came from?

[Kimberlin]

@ANickG 

I wouldn’t waste your precious time trying to trace the source of stupid spam emails, most probably originate from outside of the UK. Follow the advice of the Moderator and forward them to BT’s phishing email.

I’m more surprised (perhaps I shouldn’t be) that so many people are unable to recognise a spam email as most of them are fairly obvious with syntax clearly evident of someone whose first language isn’t English.

Delete and forget.

[WSH]

Oh, I get an email warning me they have film of me being naughty while watching porn regularly, once a month or so.  Quite entertaining really.

My mail system opens such junk as text only, so they can’t run anything.  They tell me they have Trojans and all sorts in my system and that if I don’t pay up they’ll send the video to all my contacts.  (My sister would love that.  It would just prove she’s been right all these years).

Not once in the last 18 months has any of them published anything.

Don’t click on any links, as that probably will deliver malware but just delete it and treat these sado’s as the laugh that they are.

[gg30340]

@ANickG 

If you want to view the source of the spam email you need to click on the check box beside the spam email then go to "More" in the menu bar then click on "View Source". This will show you the headers etc that show the email address and domain that sent the email along with its journey to your Inbox or Spam folder.

Keep in mind that spammers constantly change their email addresses and domains so there is little benefit in knowing the source other than if it is coming from a domain such as gmail make sure you do not block the domain as this will block all emails from gmail. 

Other than that blocking the spammers domain is basically a waste of your time because as I have said, the spammers constantly change the domain.

[Kimberlin]

@WSH 

I’ve had that sad moronic sextortion email on an old Hotmail account. When I read it, I literally laughed myself out of my gaming chair! I didn’t find it at all shocking, just pathetic. I’ve since deleted the old Hotmail account and I haven’t had anyone call me to say they’ve seen a video of me wearing my underwear back to front watching reruns of Pipkins 😂