Mail is hijacking my identity????

[jvaska]

Ok, I'll try to explain this...I hope this makes sense...

Mail (the application) somehow keeps mixing up my name. I have a hunch that this is a vulnerability in the product itself because it stems from some spams I'm receiving. For instance, let's say that this is my normal account name...

Me.Myname <email@me.com>

This is how my system is set up. Well, when I recieve a spam (which unfortunately claims to be from myself, ugh) it will reset who I am basically and show up like this...

Joe Whatever <email@me.com>

The only place where this makes a difference is when I try to send out a newsletter - sending it to myself and then to everybody else as a BCC. Here, when I do this I recieve the email back as I should but with "Joe Whatever" as the sender.

Apple doesn't even have a support forum for Mail. Anybody having a problem with this as well?

v

 

[MisterMe]

Ok, I'll try to explain this...I hope this makes sense...

Mail (the application) somehow keeps mixing up my name. I have a hunch that this is a vulnerability in the product itself because it stems from some spams I'm receiving. For instance, let's say that this is my normal account name...

Me.Myname <email@me.com>

This is how my system is set up. Well, when I recieve a spam (which unfortunately claims to be from myself, ugh) it will reset who I am basically and show up like this...

Joe Whatever <email@me.com>

The only place where this makes a difference is when I try to send out a newsletter - sending it to myself and then to everybody else as a BCC. Here, when I do this I recieve the email back as I should but with "Joe Whatever" as the sender.

Apple doesn't even have a support forum for Mail. Anybody having a problem with this as well?

v

Your "real name" can be set from two types of locations. You can set it locally. You say that your local "real name" is Me.Myname. OK, cool. However, I presume that you have friends, family, and colleagues with whom your correspond via email. It is quite likely that they email you at your email@me.com address. It is further quite likely that some of them have your "real name" listed in their addressbooks as "Joe Whatever." It is even more likely that some of these people use Windows. Now, here is where it gets interesting. A Windows worm reads your "Joe Whatever" real name in one or more of those Windows address books. Now, those Windows worms are sending out a lot of spam in the name of Joe Whatever, but you falsely accuse Mail.app of doing the dirty deed.

 

[reaper]

Wait. So is the problem that the spam e-mails you are receiving aren't displaying your name properly? That could be any number of reasons (possibly as noted above) and it's not a product of Mail messing with your name. If the person (or spammer or virus, etc.) sending you the e-mail has your name displayed or stored differently it will display that way on your machine... nothing you can do about that.

- reaper

 

[jvaska]

But that's the weird part...

Because the name keeps changing - like resetting itself. And if I send an email to MYSELF to that account it will also read the Joe Whatever name next to my email. It's as though the spammers have discovered a way to mess with my Address Book settings. When I check address book, I have never added myself to my Address Book...

When people are sending me emails some have the Joe Whatever name and some don't. If I recieve a spam addressed to myself ALL the emails which are doing this will change to the new name - Bob Whatever.

It's very hard to explain...v

 

[MisterMe]

But that's the weird part...

Because the name keeps changing - like resetting itself. And if I send an email to MYSELF to that account it will also read the Joe Whatever name next to my email. It's as though the spammers have discovered a way to mess with my Address Book settings. When I check address book, I have never added myself to my Address Book...

When people are sending me emails some have the Joe Whatever name and some don't. If I recieve a spam addressed to myself ALL the emails which are doing this will change to the new name - Bob Whatever.

It's very hard to explain...v

No, its not hard to explain. It seems, however, that it is hard for you to accept the explanation.

 

[jvaska]

No, its not hard to explain. It seems, however, that it is hard for you to accept the explanation.

<sarcasm>Wow, love this reply. How nice...</sarcasm>

The emails I'm recieving are resetting the name in my system? So now, if I send an email to myself it no longer say "Me" it says "Somebody else" - is this really the way it's going to be? I can't send newsletters anymore. It's simple, I'll have to dump Mail for this reason...I don't really want to do that...

It does sound like a bug in Mail since in my system preferences I have told the app who I am...hmmm...

 

[MisterMe]

<sarcasm>Wow, love this reply. How nice...</sarcasm>

The emails I'm recieving are resetting the name in my system? So now, if I send an email to myself it no longer say "Me" it says "Somebody else" - is this really the way it's going to be? I can't send newsletters anymore. It's simple, I'll have to dump Mail for this reason...I don't really want to do that...

It does sound like a bug in Mail since in my system preferences I have told the app who I am...hmmm...

Check your account settings in Mail's preferences. I have four accounts, each with slightly different full names. They don't get mixed up.

 

[dotcomlarry]

Mail will also show what other people have you listed as in their address book (not to be confused with the OS X Address Book). For instance, I have gotten e-mails from people I met at a conference that I went to that had my name (or nickname) followed by the conference name.

Hope that helps to shed some light on something.

 

[jvaska]

No, my accounts are not getting mixed up - I have eight.

But, this gliche is affecting even emails I've recieved in the past...

For instance, currently it says "Gerard Otero" as my name on all these emails. And even if I send myself an email it will say that name as a default (which I can't stop even if I simply type in the email address - Mail automatically changes the name back to Gerard).

Then, when I recieve a new one, like now, it says "Josh Freeman" even on the older emails. Somehow Mail is rewriting all of these...

Anyways, I found a fix for it. If I delete myself from the past recipients folder the problem goes away - probably until next time I recieve one of these emails.

I also didn't have myself added to the Address Book...

Anyways, it still doesn't seem logical that even old emails would be affected by newer emails in this way...v