Why do I get "UNDELIVERABLE" or "Undelivered" notices about messages I didn't send?
This is most likely caused by a virus. As you might guess any number of people
out there on the Internet are likely to have your e-mail address somewhere
within their computer files or address books. One or more of these computers
may be infected with a certain type of computer virus (spambot), one that
propagates itself via e-mail.
Once a computer is infected the virus will scan files, email messages and
address books for any email addresses and harvest these for use in a couple
of different ways:
- First, it uses them as recipients. In an effort to propagate itself, it generates virus-infected email messages and sends them to addresses it found during it's scan.
- Second, it picks an address (yours) to use as the sender's address. If the message cannot be delivered it is returned to whoever is listed as the sender, which in this case is you. This is what is causing the issue.
If you are receiving messages like this, there's really not much you can do. Delete the messages when they come in. Eventually the infected computer will get cleaned up and these notices will stop coming to you, that is, until the next random person out there with you in their address book gets infected.
It's possible that your computer may be infected too. It's best to run a complete virus scan with up-to-date antivirus software and definitions. Contact the helpdesk (helpdesk@caspercollege.edu) for more information regarding this process.