Pardon me, I seem to have spammed

Over the last couple of days, I suddenly received an onslaught of email marked Undeliverable. The attachment subjects were cryptic and profane, including exhortations to various people not to wash their hair with the shampoo from some advertisement. Needless to say, I promptly deleted them unread.

I am not a shampoo expert, so I would not have thought of emailing everyone in my address book on the subject. In fact, I wouldn't have emailed everyone in my address book anyway. I don't recognize the email addresses of the folks to whom I supposedly sent advice on hair products.

But the return address on the emails is mine. That is what is disturbing. Netizens all over the world, incensed at my meddling in their private ablution rituals, will now send bad karmic vibes my way. Besides, if I were going to spam people, I would stick to what I know, real estate, and spam them with listings of homes for sale in the San Antonio area.

Spoofing of emails is pretty common. Somebody, somewhere has had their email account hacked or has downloaded a virus that sends emails to everyone in their address book, which is forwarded to everyone in those other address books. The spam bot picks a return email address so the hapless victim doesn't realize their account or computer has been infected.

So in one respect, the hirsute spoofing messages are reassuring. At least I know it's not my system that is to blame.

I only hope the millions of people who have received the spoof emails will understand. To paraphrase Richard Nixon, I am not a spammer.