How can someone send an email from my own account?

I've been receiving emails addressed to my email xxxxxxx@yahoo.com from my same email xxxxxxx@yahoo.com. In other words the from and to are the same. How is that possible? Here are the headers of the email

 X-Message-Info-Pas: PPl7/LoH1CXLnPV0+jEkJ3W4w3C0ofxgTYJjUjvwrzJjTjLD+XPgbzECFW2UN5RtQ3DE4+IEVdPI49z3c/8ps8n0BEMzNfHN
X-Apparently-To: xxxxxxx@yahoo.com via 98.139.211.246; Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:57:21 -0700
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 190.134.10.119
Received-SPF: none (domain of semblog.com does not designate permitted sender hosts)
X-YMailISG: R7dcUZEWLDu7L492yx3OfGp14GlPsk6QEeqnDQwPViFMiE2T
 pRSfsVgpzA2zjXrVB0_mSXxviLIK1yd2caspQOpE0BUEsRezawS6135Jzx.f
 nIKguwR7zJpAwixdrwLVEPsA1RJLsRRgebJaMe4C_18_dNaOnTvVkKyxvSBM
 WJKOxUUZtfYuLRlZ2Cd0DoHgyJ_phvUU7OsWV9YSrxV_P0aRV9t_6KkssG_f
 9x9Fd7nprMdfvbrtePwzR4.QFy_M8qa86AgXbjd_jXG4wJ4SjN42OLe0ZGky
 0uFxlzuIRpuJJFF7CUO7h4xYE7ZJiNgzi99V5AQc9i7icnmJB7aTOW22RBuZ
 hAODkP1OklutzHxHhfA_Oykl6yK_uIBTk1caw6lvxga63Kffb5ZDSN_Lt7v2
 LOjeX_EUKYHF8tTCWJytGmiEzARqby9ibpXv0h9jJyc5KktGx7t.l9QvUJsq
 xYmc.LveEZyLcoCdwAuHgTA9PBkK6kAltTF4X_.ymQgcukvBIYi6CGU86tzS
 hApdCpS_8BXcPCT9IYesnG42mDnrVG4rZjvMSPdqB2oiNNN.9gqjKU417WrC
 Af4KUJz_T6Qp5ChoS4pokuw7OgeXxuKvZkrY3nFEl.pbGsHIeNUagKVUSmOH
 R.n5csw_RfmAyspSPst81Ng9oZtsvbwYjRW0QvraP.Iq7td5bbUM_9GZ1Je0
 xNnvHPsa62RRWorLN17z9oOvGoePMG.8qUH3vmN5Un7JW_HZ8rN6cTOcF0nT
 mu_sEM7r6yM4nXa9uSCw3YqbmBPptv6I1n8UxvJeIuRb81LWmrAkDtflt5_e
 4jiP5T57hmKcDAV19BpjqVApMRhYum2PhM_l8L3c0dFWvxJx7qL4QEq.PxUe
 tT.IPGxbPKgxY.piDT355RmE5bteu0IhcKgB8wXJqX8jjzaBSFBRAoaOsrPA
 MhIidxWepZ0RvYAvCGEkhNSycUBsVOaB9oCoZKgrukGXrUOgqT6siaNIzuoz
 KBbKytjE87k-
X-Originating-IP: [190.134.10.119]
Authentication-Results: mta1180.mail.mud.yahoo.com  from=yahoo.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig);  from=yahoo.com; dkim=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 127.0.0.1  (EHLO anteldata.net.uy) (190.134.10.119)
  by mta1180.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:57:21 -0700
Received: from 190.134.10.119(helo=yahoo.com)
    by yahoo.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.69)
    (envelope-from )
    id 1MMA65-1889nb-O7
    for ; Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:57:20 -0300
From: 
To: 
Subject: Job Proposal
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:57:20 -0300
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
    charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: bnlhrnixb-10
Message-ID:

I don't know how to interpret these headers, but this is obviously a spam.

My Sent Items folders doesn't contain that emails so that tells me it was originated from another account that is spoofing me.

What I don't understand is how can yahoo allow this.

Jonas Stawski

Posted 2011-09-22T16:01:14.123

Reputation: 910

1There's no need for Yahoo to allow this. The Sent from fields can be falsified easily. Basically, it's what the sending server reports it to be and if the server is in spammer's hands, it can say anything. – AndrejaKo – 2011-09-22T16:05:49.460

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spoofing

– Dan – 2011-09-22T16:09:25.423

1I remember being 12 and writing a batch script to send out individual, hand written emails to my friends from addresses like "yourmom@myhouse.anal" and "george.w.bush@whitehouse.gov". – Rob – 2011-09-22T16:30:25.757

2@Rob so you are 13 now? – Pacerier – 2011-09-22T16:50:32.550

I'm 20. This was in 2002 - 2003. – Rob – 2011-09-22T16:53:20.543

2@Pacerier, rofl – Moab – 2011-09-22T17:07:12.897

Impersonating email from the Whitehouse, not so smart these days. – Moab – 2011-09-22T17:08:15.767

I'm sure that yahoo has SMTP authentication. Or can you change the FROM field and be it something totally separate from the authenticated user? Can you tell where the email was sent from using the headers? – Jonas Stawski – 2011-09-22T17:53:55.707

There is ip informaion in the header, but I am sure that that information is likely spoofed as well, or the server that the email is being sent from is using a proxy. So it's not likely something that your going to be likely to "trace". Also as far as SMTP authentication goes, this is likely being sent from a spammer's server, meaning they have controll over SMTP on that server so they can put anything they can make SMTP believe pretty much whatever they enter. – Dan – 2011-09-22T18:04:08.563

How can someone send an email from my own account?

Answers