[tlug] hijacked email question

[steven smith <sjs@example.com>]

Hi All

I have a problem with email from my URL.  The url is
chaos-tools.com.  chaos is actually an acronym for
change-handeling-and-organization-systems, something I came
up with a long time ago.  There isn't much on the site.

Anyway -- over the past few months someone has been using my
email for -- god only knows what.  I haven't checked the
contents of the bounced email and guess it would be a good
idea.  The only one I looked at had only a .pdf attachement
for a stock sale.  I get notification when the mail bounces
for one reason or another, but otherwise have no indication
there is anything going on.

When this first started to happen I contacted the ISP to
find out what was going on.  Here is where this gets
confusing to me:  I don't use this site to send email.
Outgoing email is not enabled.  Incoming mail to chaos-tools
gets forwarded to this address.  The ISP checked their logs
and they tell me at least that the mail is not coming from
there.

I haven't really worried too much.  Every once in a while
(from once a week or so to several times a day) I get bounce
notices.  This morning I had about 200.  Things have slowed
down now -- I'm only getting one or two per 5 minutes.  But
these are only the bounces -- I don't know how many actually
didn't bounce.

First, how does this happen.  Don't they have to show
somehow that the email came from my IP address?  Second --
is there anything I can do about it and should I even try.

I poked around on the net a bit and this looks like
something that normally comes from hi-jacked PC's using a
user's account, but that can't be the case here unless
someone has hacked the ISP's machines and they insist that
is not the case.  I don't have any way to send email using
this account and the ISP insists that unless it's enabled,
they don't either.

Thanks
Steve S.