Spam email apparently from my own email address, not shown in sent box

[sj22]

Ive received an email marked as spam that appears to be from my own email address. It does not appear to have been sent from sent box, so I assume it is some kind of hoax, and that I haven't been hacked? The rest of my email is working fine. 

Rather worrying. It also mentions a V mail attachment which I have not clicked on obviously. Any help appreciated 

[coenoby]

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@sj22 wrote:

Ive received an email marked as spam that appears to be from my own email address. It does not appear to have been sent from sent box, so I assume it is some kind of hoax, and that I haven't been hacked? The rest of my email is working fine. 

Rather worrying. It also mentions a V mail attachment which I have not clicked on obviously. Any help appreciated 

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Here's a good article that explains about the 'spam from my own address' issue. It's a couple of years old but is still all relevant. https://www.howtogeek.com/427152/why-can-you-get-spam-from-your-own-email-address/ 

In the early days of email it was a very common technique used by spammers but less so in  recent years. These days it is more often associated with scam emails, especially extortion attempts. The scammers use it to try to convince you that they have access to your email account and even to your computer or device itself and issue threats to try to get you to pay them off, usually with Bitcoin.

As a precaution you could follow all the advice here to make your email account as secure as you can. Be aware that just changing the password is not enough.  https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-mail-my-email-has-been-hacked 

I hope this is of some help.

Coenoby

[sj22]

thank you so much for your helpful answer. The article explained how these hoaxers are managing to do this. I have marked the email as Spam - hopefully that doesn't mean that I have marked my own email address as spam? I am hesitating over the 'Blacklist Sender' button as I don't want to blacklist my own email address ! This is a ntlworld  email address that I have by the way . Is it definitely ok to do this? 

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@sj22 wrote:

 I have marked the email as Spam - hopefully that doesn't mean that I have marked my own email address as spam?

Spam filters use more complex criteria than just the sender's address, so no problem doing that. I would suggest you delete the email if you have not done so already.

I am hesitating over the 'Blacklist Sender' button as I don't want to blacklist my own email address !

Just to clarify, if you do include your own address to the blacklist in your Ntlworld account it will result in future emails from your address being sent to your spam folder. It will not result in your address being blacklisted by Virgin Media or affect how your outgoing emails will be treated in other people's accounts.

Personally though I would not bother adding it to your blacklist, there's not a lot of point really.

Coenoby

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[sj22]

Thank you so much. I have followed you advice. I marked is as Spam and then I deleted it from my Spam Folder. I didn't blacklist it. 

Very much appreciated that you took the time to help me. 

[coenoby]

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@sj22 wrote:

Very much appreciated that you took the time to help me. 

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No problem, thank you for those kind words. I'm glad I could help.😊

Coenoby