A: Sadly, no. It is trivial to

A: Sadly, no. It is trivial to fake a return address in an e-mail, which is why spammers have been doing it for so long - we'reall more likely to open and read a message if we think it came froma friend or a family member.

Just in case, your first step should be to scan your computersfor malware that could have sent that spam. Microsoft's freeMicrosoft Security Essentials (microsoft.com/securityessentials) isagood choice. For a one-time check, you can also try the free versionof MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware (malwarebytes.com). If you have a Mac,the odds are low that you got hacked, but the free ClamXav(clamxav.com) can double-check for you.

But it's less work for spammers to copy your e-mail address inthe usual ways and simply staple it onto their next round of junk e-mail. (Most consumer e-mail services don't let you send mail from adifferent address until you can confirm that you own that secondaccount, but that's only because they're being good Internetcitizens.)

If that happens, your first hint of what went on will probably bethe same flood of bounced messages that this reader reported.

And there's not much you can do besides delete them all. Even ifyou can find the actual account used to send those messages, thespammer will have moved to another by now - blocking it won't help.You can only hope that friends spammed by "you" are smart enough toknow that it wasn't your fault.

The recent breach of Epsilon Data Management's database of namesand e-mail addresses might make this problem worse. Spammers coulduse those records to send messages that not only appear to come froma known, trusted e-mail address but also a trusted name.