Help Spam from my phone?

[nathanotis]

Has this happened to anyone else? I just looked @ my gmail on my phone and I had a handful of auto-replys and messages from people in my contacts. They had all been sent some spam email with a web link to some Canadian pharmacy!

Wtf?

 

[JB in AZ]

My guess this happened via a nasty program (virus, etc) on a computer with your email acct, rather than your phone.

 

[nathanotis]

Normally, I'd agree. But my pc is not on. I'm @ work on a completely different system, with completely different contacts.

 

[JB in AZ]

Normally, I'd agree. But my pc is not on. I'm @ work on a completely different system, with completely different contacts.

I'm still betting this is more related to a computer than your phone. I doubt there are any viruses like this for Android. My wife had a similar thing happen. An email link she shouldn't have clicked on, on her computer compromised her email acct, and sent out similar emails to all her contacts. Your phone's email may just be showing the emails that were sent.


just my thoughts...

edit: YES! Change youe email password! Thx Kelmar

 

[Kelmar]

Change your email password!

Regardless of if your computer is on or not, the only way this crap can be sent is when your account has been compromised.

 

[nathanotis]

Good advice. Done and done.

I'm still boggled as to how it happened. I run Ubuntu @ home... There aren't a lot of hackers making virus' for that OS. And once again, I haven't had that PC turned on in over 48 hours...

Unless my dogs are logging in to play WoW when I'm gone again...

 

[jeremylobaugh]

OP, the same thing happened to me today @ 1350 EDT. Several emails containing only a link were sent to every contact in my address book, even recent contacts. In all, almost 6000 emails were sent in a matter minutes. I did have two PC's up with gmail open, one runs Ubuntu Linux, the other was on my office LAN, which is locked down tighter than the friggin allspark. I have never had a problem with being hacked in 16 years of having and email address, not to say that i can't. I do kinda blame myself for having a weak password, that has since been fixed.

 

[Thefoodman52]

My password is my old dis-continued phone number. Works quite well, though having the area code included makes it even harder to guess. =P

 

[Kelmar]

My password is my old dis-continued phone number. Works quite well, though having the area code included makes it even harder to guess. =P

No offense, but that would be an easy password to "hack" through a simple program.... I would HIGHLY recommend creating a strong password with numbers, letters (upper and lowercase) and a character or two with a total of at least 6+ total characters long (the more random the better).

 

[ElectricSheep1]

Hi, i just registered because the EXACT same thing happened to me.

I checked and my gmail was accessed via mobile from Switzerland. This is an Android problem! I'm running OS X on my main computer and it wasn't on at the time.

 

[JB in AZ]

Hi, i just registered because the EXACT same thing happened to me.

I checked and my gmail was accessed via mobile from Switzerland. This is an Android problem! I'm running OS X on my main computer and it wasn't on at the time.

You are missing the point! Your computer doesn't have to be on "at the time". Someone gets control of your email password, and uses your email acct. to send out these emails to your contacts. That in turn, then compromises more accts, as the receivers think the mail is ok because it came from an known sender...YOU! Which is what happened to you. You probably clicked on a link (which contained the virus) from a KNOWN sender also! If you have accessed you email from a Windows machine, and clicked on a bad link there, that is all it takes.

 

[Kelmar]

It is also possible that someone programmed an app that phishes your info from the phone. There was a banking app releases a few months ago that was doing this very thing.

Perhaps a 3rd party email app that has had their server hacked.

 

[ElectricSheep1]

You are missing the point! Your computer doesn't have to be on "at the time". Someone gets control of your email password, and uses your email acct. to send out these emails to your contacts. That in turn, then compromises more accts, as the receivers think the mail is ok because it came from an known sender...YOU! Which is what happened to you. You probably clicked on a link (which contained the virus) from a KNOWN sender also! If you have accessed you email from a Windows machine, and clicked on a bad link there, that is all it takes.

LOL NO.

I use OS X. My password also contained 6 letters and 6 numbers.

You probably clicked on a link (which contained the virus) from a KNOWN sender also! If you have accessed you email from a Windows machine, and clicked on a bad link there, that is all it takes.

Honestly! I'm not a moron. I don't fall for phishing scams.

 

[Kelmar]

Chill dude, he's trying to help you out.

 

[nathanotis]

Honestly! I'm not a moron. I don't fall for phishing scams.

Ditto. I'm still confused. This is the first time in the history of my having email that this has ever happened to me.

 

[JB in AZ]

Ditto. I'm still confused. This is the first time in the history of my having email that this has ever happened to me.

Yup, first time for my wife last week, (she's been using email since 1996) and she doesn't have email on her phone, yet. AND, she is the computer "go to" person for her medical office. She received an email from a friend, with a link. She obvioulsy thought it was ok, as it was from a friend, so she clicked on it. That ran a password and contact grabbing program, and started to send out emails with the same bad link to all of her contacts.

Bad stuff.

And yes, I am only trying to help. Thx Kelmar! I don't have all the answers, and there may be some other explaination, but that's what I have to offer.

 

[neil1492]

I had my email hacked too. It was sending out ads for this Canadian drug site. I have a good feeling it was caused by my phone. Is anyone else rooted? With fresh2.0d? Or any other rom or weird 3rd party apps?

 

[nathanotis]

Time to bring this one back... I don't want to be an alarmist, but today I woke up, checked mail from my phone without issue, and drifted back to sleep. Then just 45 minutes later, I get a prompt on my phone to re-enter my password... And my (very carefully typed) password doesn't work.

I fire up the PC (Linux, Ubuntu) and it the same thing in Thunderbird... A prompt for my password which fails again. So I pull up gmail.com and attempt a login. Then I see a message from Google saying words to the effect of, "We've locked your account, put your phone number here, and we'll send a confirmation code."

So I did, and they did. And I changed my password (again) to something ridiculously complex, and I'm back into my account on all fronts... But this is getting weird. 15+ years with gmail and I've never had any issues... Now I've had 2 problems in 1 month? It's not like I'm a super rich guy who uses my computer or phone for any sort of transactions, so whoever is doing this is spending a lot of time for no gain whatsoever.

For the curious, I'm running:
DamageControl 2.07.2, ACV (comics viewer), Aldiko (book reader), Backgrounds, Flixter Movies, Totemo Lite, Volume Control and WiFi Analyzer. I just updated a few days ago so I haven't gotten all my regular apps back up yet. You can see there's nothing too crazy

 

[Kelmar]

Log onto your gmail account on a computer and click "details" at the very bottom of the page... it'll tell you the ip address and where your account has been accessed from (for the last 10 times).

 

[JB in AZ]

Log onto your gmail account on a computer and click "details" at the very bottom of the page... it'll tell you the ip address and where your account has been accessed from (for the last 10 times).

This is great information! Be aware, that when I check mine, it shows Browser (AZ) and IMAP (CA) I live in AZ so that is me checking it on my computer, and the IMAP (CA) appears to be me refreshing it on my Hero. (Not sure why it shows CA) The IP address varies each time from IMAP, but Browser shows the same IP each time.

Just further info for you.

 

[Kelmar]

Maybe a CA tower or server?

 

[JB in AZ]

Maybe a CA tower or server?

I'm using an Airave device in my AZ home, but when I open Google on my Hero from home, it shows me in a different AZ city, about 100 miles away. And I am no where near the AZ/CA border. Just strange. Wanted to explain that so if the others check and see a different state, they won't all assume they have been hacked.

 

[Kelmar]

Gotcha...

The point is, if you see HONG KONG, it's obviously NOT YOU!!!

 

[JB in AZ]

Gotcha...

The point is, if you see HONG KONG, it's obviously NOT YOU!!!

YUP!

 

[nick325i]

This happened to my co-worker over the weekend. I got one of his e-mails and then a second one some hours later explaining it wasn't him who sent the link. It's gotta be a security flaw in the browser or a program thats collecting the info. Some thing strange, thats for sure.

i'll check with him to see if he uses any of the following:
Aldiko (book reader), Backgrounds, Flixter Movies, Totemo Lite, Volume Control and WiFi Analyzer.