Mail keeps getting returned to me

I never sent out mail though?

[chopin2256]

I have an important question regarding an incident that confuses me. For some reason, I keep getting messages that say "Mailor-Daemon" and in the subject it says "cannot forward mail" and many other messages similar like that. It says it can't deliver mail to many many addresses that I NEVER sent out mail to. What is this? I am confused, I keep track of who I send mail to, and I know for a fact I haven't sent mail to these long lists of email addresses. How can the mail be bounced back to me if I never sent out anything?

I am NOT spamming...I am afraid I will be accused of spamming. What can I do? I dont understand what this can possibly be. My domain is important to me, and it did not really bother me at first, until this kept happening. Thanks everyone!

[SEOMike]

Several viruses out there "spoof" email addresses as the sender. I had this happen to me. It was from another computer somewhere in the world that happened to have my email address. They could send their emails through any unsecured SMTP server, OR they can make their own. Best thing to do is to delete them and check your computer for viruses.

[kaled]

Someone's picked on your domain to make their spam look less spam-like. This happened to me a while back - I was getting several hundred bounce-backs an hour.

Kaled.

[chopin2256]

Thanks for your replies. Do I have to worry about Google, or any search engine flagging me for spam if they keep doing this? Does the user have access to my email address...and could he get me banned?

I ran a virus scan and yes, I did find a worm on the server that hosts my site..I disinfected it. How did I get this virus though?

[jdMorgan]

> I am NOT spamming.
> I did find a worm on the server that hosts my site.

You ARE spamming if that worm is sending e-mail from your server.

Make sure you have applied all security patches for the server and server operating system, and make sure you are using a secure e-mail program on that server. If you don't send e-mail from that server, then disable any e-mail program that may be installed.

Jim

[chopin2256]

You ARE spamming if that worm is sending e-mail from your server.

Maybe I should move to a managed vps for better security then? I need to protect my domain.

Make sure you have applied all security patches for the server and server operating system, and make sure you are using a secure e-mail program on that server. If you don't send e-mail from that server, then disable any e-mail program that may be installed.

I am currently on shared hosting, Cpanel, so the only thing I could do is scan for viruses. I deleted one virus...I hope that fixes the problem. I am switching to liquidweb managed vps next month anyway (Cpanel). Would they be more secure since its a vps?