Aol Mail Help?
 

So, I go to look at my sent mail and it looks like from my e-mail address someone has sent out 20 emails to people I don't know regaring financial help services (basically spam). Can people hack into email accounts and email span from them? This is really disturbing to me!

Can anyone help?

Yes it is possible - it happens quite often actually. Spammers pick up people's e-mail addresses from various sites, use them as the 'reply to' address and send out e-mails. Bounced mails get sent to you, filling your inbox with junk.

If this is a virus based spam, a good virus checker should help. I highly recommend you invest in one, like Norton or McAfee.

Also check AOL's spam controls should offer some assistance as well.

Also if you use a public computer, such as the University's, the cookies will sometimes save your password if you're not careful! So remember to SIGN OFF or LOG OUT when you're finished!

This just happened to one of my friends. She had to actually call and speak with an AOL customer service rep. Check to make sure no one has stolen your password too.

There's really not a whole lot you can do. You know those chain letters that get forwarded around the Internet? Unscrupulous people use those to harvest email addresses and send spam to them. Since they don't want to get busted for sending spam, they will often use an email address other than their own, without permission.

Unfortunately, it is exceedingly simple to send spam in someone else's name. What's to stop some snot-nosed little hacker kid from entering your email address in his email program, addressing something to 10000 people, and clicking send? :(

Like the others said, make sure your password hasn't been compromised. The best way to do that is to change it.