Junk mail from my own discused address

[emcee47]

For some time now I've been getting unsolicited emails from Chinese companies selling every kind of electrical product from laptops thru to mp3 players. Problem is that they're using an old email address of mine to look as if I'm recommending the products and then sending them to everyone who was on my contact list at that time.
I can only assume that an old computer of mine has found its way to the banks of the Yellow River (or wherever) and the contact list obtained as they break the parts. However, I'm now getting the same mails (sometimes three or four a day) purporting to be from other people's old addresses as well. It's driving me nuts.
Using IncrediMail, I've tried blocking and bouncing these back to the 'senders' along with the other mails purporting to be from various banks asking me to 'verify' my personal details or they will have to suspend my access - but no luck ... they're still a-coming!
Microsoft tell me that there's nothing they can do because the origin(s) cannot be determined???
Has anyone any thoughts on this please?

 

[DelJo63]

your only effective choice will be to STOP using the original email address and go
get another one. Then email to all your REAL contacts that your contact address has changed.

 

[emcee47]

Thanks Jobeard - but that's already happened. I haven't used the old address for over eight years b ut it's suddenly reappeared on these mailings from people in China. That's the dilemma :- how did they get hold of it and what is the point of using all these peoples' old addresses to publicise their own business? The only thing I can think of is that using all these different addresses makes it almost impossible to block them from sending.

 

[DelJo63]

contact the ISP with the OLD address and tell them to STOP the forward to the new address.

It tool me some time to get mine fixed; they think they are doing you a favor

tell them you are attempting to abandon the old due to SPAMMING

 

[emcee47]

Sounds like we're on the right track there Jobeard - although the mail with my old address is being forwarded to everyone else in my old contact list other than me! The only time I get to know about it is when one of the people on that list tells me it's happened again. If I could ask Hotmail to take that old address out altogether that'd work - but their last answer was that the actual origin of these mailings is 'simply not known' and these people are just attaching my old address to their own mailing somehow and forwarding it on to my contacts to look as if I'm recommending the products. Complicated isn't it?

 

[DelJo63]

for INBOUND email, you can filter your old email address as SPAM and move it to
a spam-folder OR delete it when received.

When I got my new email xxx @ domain.two, I did this with my old one xxx @ domain.one
filtered to move to SPAM\ so I could verify the accuracy and not trash something I really wanted

 

[emcee47]

Have replaced this message with the one following:-

 

[emcee47]

All good points JoBeard and thank you for them.
The only problem still remaining is that I am not the one getting emails from my old address ... everyone else is!
Hotmail tell me that the mail's TRUE origins cannot be traced (?) but these people in China are somehow appending my old address to give the mail an air of 'respectability' to my contacts and make it look as if I'm recommending the products.
Just to complicate it even further, the same mails also arrive at my NEW address - this time though not with MY old address but with lots of different peoples' old (I suspect) addresses attached to them instead.
It's getting to be a real pain in the proverbial!