Many spammers and computer viruses will send spam to random email addresses in order to advertise their product or infect people’s machines.

They’ll also choose addresses at random to indicate that the email will be sent from that address (known as Email Spoofing). This is done to increase the legitimacy (or at the very least suspicion) of the intended sender’s address.

Unfortunately, spammers utilise open relays (servers that do not require authentication) to send out viruses, just as they do with your own integrated SMTP servers. This is due to the fact that the fraudulent emails originate from a separate source. We don’t know how to stop it.

If you think you’ve been infected with a virus, you should update everything. Furthermore, you should regularly check your system for software (especially for Windows with Outlook, because the most popular e-mail programme for e-mail virus authors is Outlook) and email security. To protect your email accounts, avoid using dictionary words and use well-chosen passwords.

Here are some strategies to keep yourself and your email account safe against attacks and spam:

• Unsubscribing form a spam email will alert spammers that you have a real email address.
• Make a different email address for using on websites alone.
• Turn off the catch-all feature for your domain momentarily if you have it activated.
• Set up an SPF record to protect your domain from further misuse.