Confused about email messages.

[Coral Rhedd]

I know little about computers. I can barely navigate to this forum and a few others. Lately I have been receiving emails from this organization:

 

abuse@smileglobal.com

 

They are accusing me of sending illegal attachments to someone I have never heard of. Since I have trouble sending attachments at all and only send them to a few friends, I am baffled.

 

Could this mean someone has obtained access to my email login info and is using my email to spead some sort of mayhem?

 

Are these people connected to some sort of scam?

 

Should I respond to their accusations?

 

I know this isn't an honest-to-god techie question but I would nevertheless appreciate some advice. I am a 55 year old woman and not into porn.

 

Regards,

Coral

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Actually it's probably a scam. If it asks you to put in some sort of personal information, it is very likely. They're trying to fool you into giving them information.

 

You could also give us a copy of the message, if you can.

[Sayonara]

Are the emails all the same? If so, they are probably automated responses to mail passing through their server.

 

There are three likely explanations:

 

1) It's a scam of some sort (not that likely)

 

2) Someone is sending mails, and they are spoofing your address as the sender (not likely either - a mail server admin would see the headers were faked)

 

3) You are infected with a worm that is mailing out copies of itself. Run a complete virus sweep with an up-to-date client.

[Silencer]

http://www.smileglobal.com/contact.html

 

Assuming that is the real originating address, then it seems to be pretty legit, not a scam.

 

I second the recommendation of running a complete system scan with an up to date antivirus.

 

You might also want to send an email to that address (abuse@smileglobal.com) and explain it to them as well. Maybe they can help, or at least stop sending you messages.

[Coral Rhedd]

Updated my virus protection. I will see if that solves the problem. Thanks to all of you for your help. This nontechie will no doubt be posting in this forum again.