Posing as me (hotmail)

[ju_...@hotmail.com]

Recently someone sent an email to someone on my contact list (and not
a very nice one). It appears to come from my account and yet they
havent actually logged into my account. It appears to be a one off..
but I would like to know how someone could pose as me without using my
password. When I replied to the email to prove it didnt come from my
account - even though the address was mine (but I knew I hadnt sent
it).. it did actually come to me.

Can someone please explain (without going into too much detail as I
wouldnt want people to be told how to do it, as they could then do it
to others)... basically how its possible?

regards
Jules

[ju_...@hotmail.com]

On 5 Mar, 10:57, StephenB <sbo...@mvps.org> wrote:

> Forged headers.
> Is that a short enough answer? :-) It is fairly easy for someone to create and
> send an email message that has forged headers to make it appear that the email
> came from someone/somewhere else.
> -steve
> --
> Stephen Boots
> MVP Windows Live
> Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator
> sbo...@mvps.org

Is there anyway of tracing it to find out who sent it... I guess in
an ideal world the answer would be yes.. but.....

Jules

[ChrisRM]

<ju_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173089181.4...@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com...

Well yes and no.

If you had the mail that your contact recieved you can view the headers. The
originating IP address will be in there but that will be assigned to some
ISP who does have a log of who was allocated that IP address at the time the
email was sent but will not tell you that information without some sort of
court order.

If you are interested in email spoofing try listening to this webcast
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm and look for #79 called "Backtracking
Spoofed Spam Email".