What is a Joe Job?

If you receive e-mail saying that a message couldn't be delivered, but the address doesn't look familiar, you may be the victim of a Joe Job. A Joe Job is spam designed to look like it's coming from someone else. The spammer forges the sender's e-mail address in the message's header, replacing it with yours.

The spam is sent to thousands of addresses, some of which are no longer valid. The message bounces back to you because the message appears to have come from you.

To avoid this, never use the unsubscribe link or click on links in suspicious e-mail messages. This lets spammers know they have a valid e-mail address. Also, make sure your e-mail address does not appear on Web sites where spammers can find it.

By the way, the Joe Job is named after the unfortunate Web site hoster who was the first victim.