Email Message Warning

.Dear Computer Lady,

For about the last three issues, your Weekly Newsletter email opens with this message at the top in a big red box.

“This message could be a scam. The sender’s account may have been compromised and used to send malicious messages. If this message seems suspicious, let us know and then alert the sender as well (in some way other than email). Learn more
Report this suspicious message Ignore, I trust this message”

I continue to read and marked Ignore at least twice, but it is continuing to happen.
Scary, especially in this day and time. Why and what do I need to do?

Thanks so much. Enjoy reading your Newsletter, Rae

Dear Rae,

This message is your email program’s way of telling you that the email message did not actually come from the account in the return address field. In the case of my newsletter, the return address, eboston@gwi.net is not the actual address that the newsletter is sent from (I use a list server that sends the message out to all 40,000 subscribers at once, not something I can do using my regular email servers).

In fact, your message to me had the same warning at the top. This is because you filled out the form on my website, and it came to me as an email with your email address as the return address. My email program warned me that the message was not sent from your email address.

I’m not sure that you can do anything to stop the message, but now that you know what it means, you can be on the lookout for messages that might actually have come from a compromised system.

Elizabeth

 

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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