Email Scam

Dear All Who Can help In Every Way (Knowledge) Possible

I am an Indian using my email regularly, working full time as well as doing web-based freelance writing. I had been receiving various emails for some time relating to one of the following:

1. Some huge funds stashed away somewhere (e.g. Iraq/Iran) which could be shared with applicant
2. Some job offers promising substantial salary
3. Some lottery or prize won by email

All of them ask for some personal details like contact no, full name, etc. All of them are send to undisclosed recepiants. .

However, recently, I am getting emails sent by my own email to myself . My friends told me that my email had possibly been hacked. The emails sent by my email address removed email address so it is not picked up by more scammers and spammers - dotti .in generally have the subject heading Hi, Hello, CV #64, etc. Also, such emails convey the following:
1. Job offers promising high salary-often for jobs dealing in money/wire transfer handling (I think you can understand the serious implications!!)
2. Asks applicants to contact someone's email eg. [email protected]
3. The email purportedly represents the International Student Exchange Center (EPSEC) (On google-search,i found EPSEC as a respectable & unrelated organization)

The following is one such mail received by me (with full header shown) that I cannot fully make out for detecting relevant information:

From .in Sat Jul 10 18:26:32 2010
X-Apparently-To: .in via 203.104.16.248; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:55:34 +0530
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 80.242.99.203
Received-SPF: none (mta160.mail.in.yahoo.com: domain of [email protected] does not designate permitted sender hosts)
X-YMailISG: KyCmuEQcZArqKTe4Zvip2FWAZCl.sdafAHF7aZGhdQmqweYi hh1YIf_Wd6nZeHjYPbxxqNBxhE8jYU.Mm5YsftWxFFuhR_O339z7_biiFjyg 9HgHiGqSTjUFCg02SCW42HLV8IlioKfrENr5Ga52dW7NadBVViP8ew.4OdmQ 1qFS47__Pi.MOkVV6Q1Cf9owwR_d6_J9tgZ8W1EBRY_Ro4BDlqhYuKwBG8yM JqJj8XqboVff52uUg0eKIpxzIRLgDAl6ueId0zj535ceP.i8NwCl9DUNNuPD X1XCKL0pjSg0siJfscLkvMXo61X0Ck4aD_1E37aN6B.Gf.iyFC.G89YBsFPV cz6WLKn_zNnH_.wkIofwyOyrIKHS4Obd_QxY6XRYH7kd9K00WeBHFYHWy_EZ vU2G6FkcG7Y3CGWJIdqHGObdTmwXmZUPU20gtDaoPdOsdwkyu1_GWNfcYznI aiEN1wph..CHrHB7ZaVcb4I1ZiKXCtUSi0XRwITH5fZiE5.hnul.3a6YS_bs 0wGy1fZ.
X-Originating-IP: [80.242.99.203]
Authentication-Results: mta160.mail.in.yahoo.com from=yahoo.co.in; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=yahoo.co.in; dkim=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 80.242.99.203 (HELO aft.schuitema.nl) (80.242.99.203) by mta160.mail.in.yahoo.com with SMTP; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:55:34 +0530
To: <>
From:
<>
Add sender to Contacts
Subject: hello
MIME-Version: 1.0
Importance: High
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 2167
Compact Headers
My name is Brianna ARGUERA, I am a hiring manager with International Student Exchange Center (EPSEC),
a non-profit international student exchange organization, specializing in managing exchange programs
for university and college students from all over the world.

I would like to offer you a job of an Area Representative with our organization.

An Area Representative's responsibilities include
* Distributing of educational materials and grants from our sponsors
* Preparing materials that will be used for country & state guides for foreign students
* Working with host families, helping to resolve their issues, responding to their concerns

Job Requirements
* 1-2 years of Previous sales experience is required.
* Previous sales experience in admissions, health club memberships, or personnel placement is preferred.
* Telephone appointment setting and interviewing experience.
* Strong communication skills, both on the phone and in person, are required.


Please note that you will need a PC with Internet connection,
as well as a working cell phone or a landline to successfully perform as a Student Organization Representative.
This job would allow you to work from home or office,
since all your functions will be done through a web-based interface, which can be accessed remotely.

All employees are provided with free training materials. The starting salary is $31.28 per hour,
which can be increased depending on your performance level. We offer paid holidays, vacation,
and education reimbursement for full-time and part-time employees.

Our work environment is very dynamic.
Our people are valued.

Apply today for a rewarding experience in the international education & student exchange industry!

Please forward your resume along with your contact information to the following email: [email protected]





I had already lodged one email complaint with the CBI which represents our regional representative for Interpol. However, I have not received any reply so far. But I need to retain the email since I regularly use the email, have registered it with PayPal & Alert Pay (where funds get credited sometimes) as well as receive advice regarding wire transfers to my account in India. Questions to which I seek answers are:

1. Can I break free from the grip on my email of the scamsters who appear to be using my email for some massive fraud? This is so that I can continue using my email securely as before.
2. What is the mechanism (technology) by which such scamsters are using my email & how actually are they using it?
3. Why don't yahoo or similar email providers have some specific warnings displayed on their websites? Also, why don't they have some special contact persons or some means of communicating to them such problems which they may be better equipped to resolve or nab the scamsters?
4. The way spyware, adware, trojans, virus etc are proliferating on the internet and also most security software cannot detect or remove all such security hazards, why does not google or yahoo themselves develop some free anti virus etc?
5. How to decipher the email transcript that I have provided here? I mean who is sending such emails by using my own email? How to completely eliminate such scams?

Indeed,I want to know how to UNHACK & use my email safely ( I tried so many anti virus, anti-spyware, etc on my PC but still my email is being misused)

Hoping to resolve my problems,

Regards,

R

You ask many complex questions, not all of which I am technically proficient enough to answer. However as far as scammers using your email address, it is far more likely that they are "spoofing" the address when they write to you. It is not as likely they are using your address when contacting other potential victims as most people will simply hit "reply," and that would direct to you. It is quite common for spammers to spoof the recipient's email address to appear to be the sender, it's one way to get people to open and read the spam, if only out of concern for security. It's not as common with scammers, but it does happen.

The headers you posted seem to indicate it originated from the Ukraine. Eastern Europe is where many of the most sophisticated scams are coming from, they are much more proficient with computers than the average scammer.

There are many free virus programs available on the Internet, including AVG, Malwarebytes, Ad aware, Spybot and others. If you don't have adequate protection you should run one or more to see if you may have an infection of some kind. I find Malwarebytes to be particularly effective.

Gmail seems to be more proactive than Yahoo mail when it comes to catching spam/scam and adding warnings to questionable email. They also scan attachments routinely.

Hopefully others will come in and post with more technical information for you.