Spaming with my address

Oh how I hate spam..

Most of us live with spam as an annoyance, today however spam might have cost me some real money.

Today I got some responses to spam that was sent with my companies address as the return address.

My best guess is that the spamming applications spider the internet like search engines and collect email address.  Not just email address to send to but also email address to send from..

It is very easy to send an email and have the return address what ever you wish.

I could for instance set my "reply to" address to dave@micorsoft.com or for that matter georgebush@whitehouse.com  What ever I want.. Of course I wouldn't do that because it would mean I wouldn't get any responses to my emails.. But in the case of spam they don't want responses.. They want you to go to the website included in the email. 

 

What does this respond to my address mean? It means that every one who received an email from my company that didn't originate from my company will now be put off.  If it continues they might even block all emails coming from my companies address.  Worst case they might remember the company name and be totally put off by what they think is my company policy.

 

What do I do though?  Well for now I'll hope it's a one time thing. (very wishful) I'll do a deep scan for virus and then I'll check out my options.  Here's hoping I can track down the people who are spoofing my address (and kill them) and threaten/actually sue them.