My email account was hijacked!

I just want to let everyone know that my email account was hijacked by someone claiming to be the CEO of Smith Textiles, Michael Smith. They somehow got into my email account and sent thousands of spam emails from it while I was on vacation this past week, so I did not realize what had happened until I got home almost a week later.

They were emails saying that Micheal Smith, CEO of Smith Textiles has job opportunities for people in the US to receive Money Orders from orders and cash them at their bank and then send 90% of the money via Western Union to him with details to be sent later.

I still have no idea how this person got into my email account, but the first thing that made me realize is that when I checked my email through Outlook Express when I returned home, I had not gotten any emails since Wednesday, (today is Monday) and that is very unusual being that it is my business email account therefor I get numerous emails daily from clients, friends and yes, spam. I then went directly to my email server account to find that there were no emails there either. So I called my email service provider and they looked into it for me. She came back and asked me who Michael Smith was. I do not know a Michael Smith I told her. She told me to look into my Compose Email folder where the information for who is sending the email, etc,. is stored. They had changed it to say from Michael Smith at Shabby Boutique. Then looking further into it found that they had also changed my forwarding address to send them to whoever this is at another email addres, instead of my Outlook inbox, and then delete all of my incoming emails.

This angered me as well. Any emails that I got from clients, orders taken, friends, family, anything, has been deleted. So besides trying to ruin my company name and business, they have deleted all of my email. The other sad part is that since I have rectified the email situation; ie., changed my email account password and settings, etc,. There have actually been people reply to this persons spam with their names, addresses and telephone numbers. Which also means that they opened the attachment from someone that they don't know. Do people still not understand that you never open an attachment from some one you don't know?

This saddens me that someone would do such a thing to someone. Whether it be hijacking someones email account, or sending out phishing emails, or even try to defraud others in any way. My heart breaks knowing all of this, and it breaks for those that do get taken by these (excuse my word) Jerks. What possesses others to take advantage of others. Don't people look into their hearts and realize that you should treat others how you want to be treated? Don't people have a conscious any more?

So, if anyone tried to email me last week until this afternoon, I have to apologize, but I did not receive your emails. The situation is now rectified and I am currently receiving my emails and no other of my accounts were compromised, ie,. Paypal, eBay, etc,. I just want to clear my name and my business of any of these spam emails and anything that may have happened from any of these emails. I have been in business since late 1999 and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me.

Thank you for your understanding,
Sincerely,
Jewel Simonson
Shabby Boutique