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wrong name in thunderbird's address book

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 21 views
  • Last reply by skyzoomer

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A friend (Carol) says messages in her sent folder have the wrong name (Ellie) as the sender instead of her name (Carol). Problem was traced to an entry in her Thunderbird address book that had the name Ellie associated with her email address.

The question is "How did this happen?". She doesn't remember making an entry in her address book. Is there a known virus that does this?

A friend (Carol) says messages in her sent folder have the wrong name (Ellie) as the sender instead of her name (Carol). Problem was traced to an entry in her Thunderbird address book that had the name Ellie associated with her email address. The question is "How did this happen?". She doesn't remember making an entry in her address book. Is there a known virus that does this?

Chosen solution

Hi Skyzoomer, I've never heard of this happening before, so can only provide theoretical guesses. Perhaps the address book entry is in the collected address book, not the personal address book, and she received a spam message and the spammer used her address in the "From" header with the name Ellie?

In any case, there doesn't need to be entry in the address book. If she hasn't done so already, she can delete the entry.

If the problem comes back, then we can explore other possible reasons.

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Chosen Solution

Hi Skyzoomer, I've never heard of this happening before, so can only provide theoretical guesses. Perhaps the address book entry is in the collected address book, not the personal address book, and she received a spam message and the spammer used her address in the "From" header with the name Ellie?

In any case, there doesn't need to be entry in the address book. If she hasn't done so already, she can delete the entry.

If the problem comes back, then we can explore other possible reasons.

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Thank you for taking the time to respond. I've advised my friend to restore the last backup before this problem started, just to be safe. Wanted to know if this problem was a known virus. Thanks.