In the last 24 hours I have received 20 - 30 delivery failure notices for a note that I did not send. The failure notices are coming from email addresses I have no knowledge of (they aren't in my Outlook contacts and I have never contacted them previously).

How do I stop the use of my email account?
How do I prevent this from happening again?
How do I deal with / find the perpitrator?

About me:

the email hijacked is a "throw away address" that I use when forced to provide an email address to access info on websites. (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

I never go to porn or get rich quick sites.

I have a dell laptop that is connected to wireless (protected/encrypted) cable internet. 90% of the time I put my laptop on standby when I am not using it. 5% of the time I turn off my computer completely.

My operating system is: Windows Vista Home Basic SP1; Dell Inspiron 1502 32-bit OS

I use Outlook 2007 as my mail reader. POP3 for most mail, one IMAM connection for gmail account (not hijacked)

To follow is a copy of one of the failure notices which includes the offending email.

-----Original Message-----
From: postmaster@affv.nu [mailto:postmaster@affv.nu]
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:52 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Undeliverable Mail

Invalid final delivery userid: xxxxxxxxxxxx

Original message follows.

Received: from affv.nu [91.204.128.8] by affv.nu
(SMTPD32-8.05) id A8A0BF0094; Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:52:00 +0100
Message-ID: <49B308A2.1019784@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:52:02 GMT
From: Stacy <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Windows/20080213)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: I got your contact from a friend
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-IMAIL-SPAM-DNSBL: (www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml,12517524,127.0.0.2)
X-IMAIL-SPAM-VALREVDNS: (12517524)

hi, I found your mail on a website
Im horny and would love to chat
I will bare it all for you baby
I will do anything you want me to 2
Do you have a messanger? if so you can add me with yahoo or msn messenger
xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.s look forward to catching up soon ;)

Edit by mod, addresses removed (Never write your email address on a public forum. You attract spammers that way)

stacy, if it is a disposable or "throw-away" address, why not delete it? I have disposable addresses, too, and would delete one in a heartbeat if it started being abused. Most disposable address systems allow you to create a new one at any time.

You guys are awesome!

Thank you for your comments. I am relieved to learn that my address was probably spoofed, and my account was mostly likely not hacked. I appreciated the wikipedia link very much.

I plan to delete the address after updating the handful of legitimate contacts that do use the compromised address.

Have a great day!