Posted on 04/21/2018 9:25:43 PM PDT by Hostage
Somehow my and my 11-year old son's gmail was spoofed, meaning someone is able to send messages out using our gmail accounts.
The spoofed emails show up in my sent folder.
We changed our Google account passwords. But I am still studying what else to do; not confident I understand how it happened, not confident I've done what needs to be done.
My son plays on Xbox Live and I don't know what goes on there but he's smart enough to not give out personal info.
I have a 2-step verification process enabled.
Here's one of the spoofed messages (I redacted out my gmail with ******@gmail.com)
from: ABC Shark Tank <******@gmail.com> via telus.com
to: senderus@justvaluerate.com,
senderse@justvaluerate.com,
monsl@50-233-80-21-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net,
mz@traveldailymedia.com,
gego@nih.gov,
iscontact@rei.com,
mz@wp.com,
info@chadog.fr,
info@autotrader.com
date: Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 7:17 PM
subject: Exclusive Limited Time Online Offer Shark Tank Success Story
mailed-by: telus.com
security: ip-pool.com did not encrypt this message Learn more
________________________
Whoever got hold of my gmail changed the gmail name from my personal name to 'ABC Shark Tank' shown above. Also, I don't know any of the addressees.
The body of the spoofed gmail has a line from Google that says:
"This may be a spoofed message. Gmail couldn't verify that it was actually sent from your account. Learn more"
The 'Learn more' link is kind of useless.
Here's the second spoofed message title:
------------is A Big P R o s T a T e [M A k I N G] Your LiMp?
Anytime I see a subject title like that, I push the Spam button but this is from my gmail address:
from: -----------------Optimum Male Health <*******@gmail.com> via telus.com
So my real name was changed to '-----------------Optimum Male Health'
I sent a TEST message to myself and everything looks good. Only 2 spoof messages used my gmail and no other for now.
The only other spoofed message came from my son's gmail where his gmail was also spoofed. His mail is redacted below to 'xxxxxxxx@gmail.com' and his name was changed to 'Funeral Quote':
from: Funeral Quote
to: senderus@justvaluerate.com,
senderse@justvaluerate.com,
monsl@50-233-80-21-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net,
mz@traveldailymedia.com,
gego@nih.gov,
iscontact@rei.com,
mz@wp.com,
info@chadog.fr,
info@autotrader.com
date: Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 7:20 PM
subject: Maybe You’re Just Not Ready For A Girlfriend…
mailed-by: gmail.com
security: Standard encryption (TLS) Learn more
: Important according to Google magic.
______________________________
This one borders on porn and I don't do porn, neither does he (I check his website history from time to time and set child security so he's not able to see any smut).
Please shed any light you can, thanks.
Change your password
Done.
go outside and scream at the sky
Notify google that your account has been hijacked
Give up on the EVIL Google and get a new account somewhere else. Pay for privacy.
Good idea but there maybe black helicopters will be watching my every mood, especially after I have been reading so much about Q.
Your account has not be hacked. Your email however is being spoofed as you said. It’s easy to do (really easy) without access to your account. You can’t do much about the spoofing.
Each side individualy is great.
What should I do?
Been procrastinating for more than 6 months on that one. It’s on my perma to-do list.
You sound like a keeper of odd knowlege, like a Qook....
If your Account was actually hacked, I’m surprised the Hacker didn’t already change your Password.
So the day cream gets rubbed on my computer screen and I won’t see anything scary? Really?
What a great idea.
Or I could just put a blindfold over my eyes.
ROFL
exactly. They snagged his email off of facebook or some other site. May also be listed in one of the many databases of emails used by spammers.
If your son plays on Xbox I will focus on his use first...
Downloading things like pictures and even word files can have auto activate viruses in them that will capture your keystrokes. I am getting a feeling that you have something like this latently in your computer. Get a top flight virus checker like Webroot and scan the whole system first and see what if anything pops up. another thing to watch out for is logging into sites where you have to enter information, especially if you are using the same password for all of your accounts.
Change your password and then setup a new gmail account with a different password and do NOT hook it to you current one(s). Use that for all the site you visit and go from there. I would suggest that it is one of the 2 issues listed above where yo have voluntarily (or unknowingly) provided them with your password and now this whole fiasco has begun. Last tip, when you see an incoming e-mail that you do not recognize do NOT open it, that may send an auto read signal back to the sender telling them they have a live address. When you see it in your inbox select it and send it to spam folder, do not open it or read it. If you see something that is suspicious at the top of the e-mail where it tells you the sender name there is a little v looking symbol that when you click on it will tell you who the actual sender is, and if there is more than one mark it as spam.
And last tell your son to stop being so innocently careless if he is providing login information as part of his gaming experience, I went through this with my niece and her son who is big into threat and the problems were a regular occurrence
Let me know how it works out
Ok, that is consistent with other support tech forums.
I’m just afraid some spoof scammer will send porn material to people on my email list. But all the addressees I saw were fortunately not from my list.
So, since my account was not hacked, the spoof scammer was not able to access my addressee list. That’s comforting.
Adding a little more - spammers like to send out spam from addresses that look like they came from people on their lists. The resemblance is just superficial and there is nothing you can do about it.
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