As I noted in my original message and as repeated by several others, this was a SPOOFING incident ... or in other words, an imposter used my name and our company name to send out what may have been a virus or malware to unsuspecting victims. Nobody got into my computer or website.
The spammer obviously got an email from me and then turned around, used my standard signature and "reply" address to send out thousands of messages throughout the BVI and all over the world.
The messages went to hotels, villas, yacht charter companies, air charter companies, insurance companies, livery companies and even sky-diving and adventure tour outfits.
As has been correctly surmised, it was the "undeliverable bouncebacks" that had me hitting the delete button for 6 and a half hours. However, at the same time, I was receiving messages from all over the world who were responding to "my inquiry" and wanting more details. Sigh. I responded to over 1500 people explaining the situation.
I also received an endless string of phone calls from many businesses all over the map for a full 30 hours after this mass email mailing went out. Needless to say, I got absolutely nothing else done during that time ... including sleep.
My apologies to all those that got taken in by the messages sent [color:"red"]purportedly[/color] from me, but as you know by now, I had nothing to do with it. I can only guess that they used my name and email address, knowing that people would be likely to open the attachment. To answer the question as to what was in the attachment, I have no clue. I don't make a habit of opening attachments that [color:"red"]I KNOW were deliberately sent by spammers[/color]! I do not need to satisfy my curiosity ... thanks very much.
I posted the warning here, on my personal Facebook page, and 4 times on the BVI Community Bulletin Board ... in an effort to let people know not to open the attachment and to just throw it away.
My computer is fine, there were no breaches of any kind, my address book was not attacked. There are just several thousand more people in the world who have now heard of Bareboats BVI ... but not in a good way.
Anyway, it is over for now. I only received 4 or 5 dozen messages today. I have responded to all of the companies who got sucked in and have told them it was a spoof thing. They all understood, so hopefully, that will be the end of it.
To Mike Kneafsey: Thanks very much for the kind words ... and yes, the Bareboats BVI website was basically cloned without my knowledge. It was also attacked by a "drug" spammer who managed to breach my web host's security, downloaded the whole site, added invisible text and links (white text on a white background)... pointing to websites selling Viagra and other nonsense. They did this on every single page of the site and then uploaded it again. I had no idea for over a year.
To the uninitiated, the spammer was piggy-backing on our website's excellent reputation and ranking in Google. Those links (even though invisible) would boost the credibility to the spammers drug site because links from our website pass along what Google refers to as "Page Rank". Page rank is basically a "vote" system and is one of the major things that dictates "the best, most relevant and most trusted" websites Google shows you for specific keywords you type in when you search.
There have been several other minor attacks on our site, but the two I have outlined devastated our business as our ranking in Google basically disappeared in a matter of months ... along with our site's long-standing excellent reputation.
Because the site was cloned by one guy and hacked by another, we received various different penalties from Google, (and all the other search engines) from which the site has never recovered. The site has since been completely redesigned, rewritten and rebuilt using an updated format. We also made it mobile friendly and lightning fast ... but alas, nothing has worked. It appears it will never recover at this point and I don't have it in me to do it all over again, using a different URL.
Such is life! I yearn for the day I will be able to retire and won't have to even look at another computer or website as long as I live!
Ushi, I am coming ... some day! I am so jealous that she has retired! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />
