The reason is the sender is spoofing your email address. At some point, your email address got into the hands of one of these spam senders and they are using it to make it look like the email has come from a genuine address.
Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. It is easy for such messages to sneak into your inbox, too. That's because most email systems simply do not have a mechanism for authentication when the email addresses are genuine, but the message itself has been sent from a cloned account.
Someone created fake emails from you
Someone has the email addresses of your contacts and is spoofing messages that look like they're coming from you. They may have current or previous access to your account or have compiled the addresses from an email you've sent in the past.
“From” spoofing means faking the “From:” address on an email to make it look like it came from you, and to do it, spammers don't need access to your account at all. In fact, I'd say that 99.99% of the time it has nothing at all to do with your account, and your account is quite safe. They only need your email address.
It's called email spoofing and it can make the job of spotting scams more difficult. Email spoofing is a form of impersonation where a scammer creates an email message with a forged sender address in hopes of deceiving the recipient into thinking the email originated from someone other than the actual source.
Mitigating the risk posed by email spoofing requires a multi-layered approach to security. Security awareness training can help users to more easily spot and avoid email spoofing attempts. Email filters that use DNS authentication services like SPF, DKIM and DMARC can help to lock potentially fraudulent email.
Email spoofing attacks are conducted by using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP server and an email platform, such as Outlook, Gmail, etc. The scammer changes fields within the message header, such as the FROM, REPLY-TO, and RETURN-PATH fields. This is possible because of the way email has evolved.
Email address being spoofed
The most common type of hacker email activity is called email Spoofing. Email spoofing is when an email's identifying fields, such as the From, Return-Path and Reply-To addresses are modified to appear to be from someone other than the actual sender.
Spammers and hackers use complex automated tools to scan the web and gather email addresses. Spammers harvest email addresses from mailing lists, websites, chat rooms, domain contact points, and much more. Understand that if you list your email address online, a spammer will find it.
Check for suspicious account activity
On the left navigation panel, click Security. On the Recent security events panel, click Review security events. Review your recent activity and look for unfamiliar locations or devices. You can also click on any event in the list to see more details about it on the right.
The most likely answer is that you have been Blind Carbon Copied(Bcc) on the email. Usually this happens when the sender is actually addressing the party in the To: address, but would like you to see the information without the To: party knowing that you were included on the email.
Known as spoofing, it may result in spam emails featuring your email address as the sender address. With spoofing, the recipient thinks the email was sent from a legitimate person or business when it was actually sent from a hacker. After all, spoofing changes the sender address.
Someone is spoofing - a fraudulent or malicious practice in which communication is sent from an unknown source disguised as a source known to the receiver - using your email address.
If you receive any unwanted email, the best approach in almost every case is to delete it immediately. It is often clear from the Subject line that a message is junk, so you may not even need to open the message to read it.
If you receive a spam email, you should delete it immediately—do not open any attachments or click any links. It only takes one wrong click, and hackers can gain access to your entire computer. The tips below will help you better protect yourself when using email. Phishing emails are one type of email scam.
Spam emails only become a serious cyber threat if you've committed any of the following actions: Downloaded any malicious files or email attachments. Responded with sensitive information (like your credit card or bank account numbers). Clicked on any phishing links.
No, they won't know if you have blocked them. They won't receive a notification you have filtered their messages from your inbox. Their emails simply go straight to spam if they try to send you anything.
You can register your numbers on the national Do Not Call list at no cost by calling 1-888-382-1222 (voice) or 1-866-290-4236 (TTY).
What can a scammer do with your email? Stolen credentials allow a scammer to send malicious messages or malware links to your contacts, extract personal or financial information from your saved messages, or get your friends and family to send money to them under false pretenses.
Although spoofing can look a lot like hacking, it is actually something completely different. When your email has been spoofed, it means that someone sent an email that appeared to be from your email account but was not actually from your account.
It is important to remember that spoofing is a temporary issue that typically will pass within a few weeks. By keeping your account secure and updated, you can expect your mailbox to experience much fewer spam or spoofing messages.
Email spoofing can greatly increase the effectiveness of phishing and other email-based cyber attacks by tricking the recipient into trusting the email and its sender. While spoofed emails require little action beyond removal, they are a cybersecurity risk that needs to be addressed.
To report spoofing or phishing attempts—or to report that you've been a victim—file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).