How does one deal with this: "Undisclosed recipients: ;"

[Asher Kelman]

My Mac email is sending out many emails to "Undisclosed recipients: ;". It seems to happen especially at night or when my iphone is not being used. I cannot figure out where it originates. It could be my iphone or one of several computers with mail on it.

Anyone know how to undo this? I figure that some mail agent is using my computer to send out spam.

On one computer MakKeeper just found "Adware/Adware.Gen7" in mplayer/setup.exe and I deleted it.

I'll have to see whether the mailings continue!

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

My Mac email is sending out many emails to "Undisclosed recipients: ;". It seems to happen especially at night or when my iphone is not being used. I cannot figure out where it originates. It could be my iphone or one of several computers with mail on it.

Anyone know how to undo this? I figure that some mail agent is using my computer to send out spam.

Asher

I suggest turning down and unplug one unit per day, to find out if there is hacking on one of your units or if it is happening on all of your units... then you'll know if you have a hacked unit or if it is a problem with your account... If it is a hacked unit, "re-format" should take care of the issue... In parallel to the above action, I would suggest to contact the service provider in case the problem is not in one (or more) units but a hacked account....

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Asher,

How did you discover that your Mac account is sending emails? Do you see what has been sent in your Sent box? If so, then somebody must have hacked your account. If not, it could be a spammer just using your email as the "from" address.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Asher,

How did you discover that your Mac account is sending emails? Do you see what has been sent in your Sent box? If so, then somebody must have hacked your account. If not, it could be a spammer just using your email as the "from" address.

Thanks, Cem!

I'm getting copies in my In Box! There's no track of them in my sent mail box!!!!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

I suggest turning down and unplug one unit per day, to find out if there is hacking on one of your units or if it is happening on all of your units... then you'll know if you have a hacked unit or if it is a problem with your account... If it is a hacked unit, "re-format" should take care of the issue... In parallel to the above action, I would suggest to contact the service provider in case the problem is not in one (or more) units but a hacked account....

I thought of that! I can check for viruses in my Macs but how about the iphone? Last nights mailings went out while all the computers were asleep.

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

In that case, the.most likely scenario is that somebody is sending spam using your email address. That is nothing to worry about, it happens to me all the time. If you want to be certain, inspect the header details of the email you've received. If you don't know how, just forward one to my mail address and I'll check.

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

Thanks, Cem!

I'm getting copies in my In Box! There's no track of them in my sent mail box!!!!

Asher

Asher, try "logging out email" from all the units that you use, to see if the problem still occurs when you are "logged out"... (the cell phone too!). If it still occurs, then Cem has probably got it right...

 

[Asher Kelman]

An interesting detail is that it uses the @me.com suffix which I never do. I use @mac.com!!

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

An interesting detail is that it uses the @me.com suffix which I never do. I use @mac.com!!

Do you have a different password with "I cloud" than your regular mail?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Do you have a different password with "I cloud" than your regular mail?

No, it's all the same and pretty complex!

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Asher,

I've received the forwarded email. your mail client has stripped the header details of the forwarded email so it is not useful. but looking at the empty email contents, it might not be spam after all. It might be a buggy app installed on your iphone or iPad sending empty emails to your address as the bcc. In that case, follow Theodoros' advice and log off from devices in turn till the mails stop. the next step could then be trying to find out which app is causing the issue.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Asher,

I've received the forwarded email. your mail client has stripped the header details of the forwarded email so it is not useful. but looking at the empty email contents, it might not be spam after all. It might be a buggy app installed on your iphone or iPad sending empty emails to your address as the bcc. In that case, follow Theodoros' advice and log off from devices in turn till the mails stop. the next step could then be trying to find out which app is causing the issue.

Thanks, Cem!

Is there some way I can copy the header then email that to you so it's not "stripped"?

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

No, it's all the same and pretty complex!

Asher

I suggest disconnecting "I cloud" immediately... and after that change the password! Then, if you want "I cloud" back, use a different (new) password for it... I suspect this will clear the problem for good! ...It is widely spread on the web that some Apple people are giving the password away to strangers that call them by ...phone (!!!) and are pretending (weeping) to have their password forgotten!

 

[Asher Kelman]

I suggest disconnecting "I cloud" immediately... and after that change the password! Then, if you want "I cloud" back, use a different (new) password for it... I suspect this will clear the problem for good! ...It is widely spread on the web that some Apple people are giving the password away to strangers that call them by ...phone (!!!) and are pretending (weeping) to have their password forgotten!

When you say, "disconnecting icloud immediately" what do you mean by that? What steps would you take specifically? Wouldn't that destroy the email account! Changing a password, however is straightforward.

Asher

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

When you say, "disconnecting icloud immediately" what do you mean by that? What steps would you take specifically? Wouldn't that destroy the email account! Changing a password, however is straightforward.

Asher

You can disconnect "I cloud" without affecting your email account... I checked on web and it can be done. I don't use "i-cloud" myself to tell you how, but if you "google" it, you'll get the answer. Then, I suggest a different password for "I-cloud", so that if the problem reoccurs, you can change that only!

P.S. Another thing to do (just occurred to me...) is to change the i-cloud password first and then the email password to a different one! ...but it will still be safer if i-cloud is not active when you set the email password...

 

[Jerome Marot]

From your description, it does not seem that YOU are sending mail, but that someone is sending mail to you and pretends to be you.

In mail, choose "view", then "message" and "raw source". Tell us what you see there. Of most interest would be:
-the headers, to have the i.p. of the first mail sender
-the content of the message, to see whether it is as empty as you think.

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

From your description, it does not seem that YOU are sending mail, but that someone is sending mail to you and pretends to be you.

In mail, choose "view", then "message" and "raw source". Tell us what you see there. Of most interest would be:
-the headers, to have the i.p. of the first mail sender
-the content of the message, to see whether it is as empty as you think.

"...it does not seem that YOU are sending mail, but that someone is sending mail to you and pretends to be you." ...and he is using your (Asher's) i-cloud (hence the suffix) to achieve it!

 

[Jerome Marot]

"...it does not seem that YOU are sending mail, but that someone is sending mail to you and pretends to be you." ...and he is using your (Asher's) i-cloud (hence the suffix) to achieve it!

One does not need to use i-cloud to fake a sender address. I could send you mail using theodoros@fotometria.gr if you wanted it.

 

[Theodoros Fotometria]

One does not need to use i-cloud to fake a sender address. I could send you mail using theodoros@fotometria.gr if you wanted it.

I don't say that one needs to use i-cloud Jerome... I'm saying that he probably does and this is to be examined!

 

[Jerome Marot]

Another possibility: quite a few devices which do not present themselves as computers can send e-mail: i.p. cameras, routers, maybe even some connected photo cameras. The idea is that they will tell the user when a given event happens (e.g. intrusion in the house). It rarely works as expected and when they are misconfigured they tend to produce a stream of e-mails as reported here.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Another possibility: quite a few devices which do not present themselves as computers can send e-mail: i.p. cameras, routers, maybe even some connected photo cameras. The idea is that they will tell the user when a given event happens (e.g. intrusion in the house). It rarely works as expected and when they are misconfigured they tend to produce a stream of e-mails as reported here.

Now that's a great idea. I'll check all apps that might do that. Techtool Pro will be first.

Thanks, Michael!

BTW, getting out of the cloud is likely to be a risky divorce. Lots of complaints of data getting wiped off one's Macbook, LOL!

Asher

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

...BTW, getting out of the cloud is likely to be a risky divorce. Lots of complaints of data getting wiped off one's Macbook, LOL!

Asher

It is off topic, but I'd like to comment on this. This has been one of the main reasons why I don't touch Apple equipment even with a stick. It started way back with the likes of iTunes. Apple makes it obligatory to use the dreaded iTunes to even upload a picture to one's iPad. With the cloud, the enslavement is taken to the next level. It is similar to what Adobe are doing with their creative cloud. I prefer having full control of my own computing devices and data.