Hello and phishing scams via friends' addy

Hello

I joined this forum because several times I've had phishing scams through a friend's email address. It's impossible to block the email because it's a friend's addy, even though they have NOT sent it. Though I did find this for reporting scams [email protected]

The latest one is titled "Private Message" giving a link, (which I DID NOT click on). My friend confirmed that she had not sent it.

Another friend had to change his email address because someone had sent a begging letter to everyone on his mail list! Thankfully it was obvious in this case that he couldn't have sent it. The person claiming to be him said he was on a trip to the Phillipines and was stranded with no money because they had been mugged, and please reply if they could help him and he would tell them how to send the money!

As it happened my friend was at home, and probably has never been to the Phillipines, but what if he had, and happened to be there?!!!

so I think this is a good place to get and share advice!

Cheers

Is there any way of stopping criminals hijacking our email addresses like this?

Good strong passwords. (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 is NOT a strong password. Neither is using "password")
Don't give your password to anyone (most people have been phished first).
Change your password regularly.
Do NOT use the same password for every online activity. Give each a unique password.

Scammers / phishers can also Spoof and email address and make it look like it comes from the real owner of the email address.

Learn about safety on the internet, and teach your friends and family about safety too.

If your email has been hijacked, do everything you can to get back into your email account. Then warn ALL of your contacts that tour email address was hijacked.