Should I Be Concerned?

[Katana]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. Obviously, I'm not terribly knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff, and I also know that people can go overboard with paranoia. Didn't want to fall into that, but I was worried.

I'm largely reassured now.

I will talk to my dad about cleaning up his system, and I think that I'll go ahead and send some e-mails to my congressmen about this. I figure I don't have much to lose doing that.

The advice has been greatly appreciated.

 

[Foolmewunz]

I'm not as technically literate as most on this page, but from the description it would seem that not dad's address, but your own has been hijacked. These sound like responses to mail that was sent out by you, but you didn't send it.
Are the details in the emails the same as you have in your AOL profile? (When originally signing up for AOL, many of us, myself included, gave out all sorts of info that we wouldn't give out today, being wiser to the ways of the world.)

Do you have an anti-adware/spamware on your PC? It's not in the normal Symantec and other commercial virus software. It has to be run separately.

Again, the "techies" replying can clarify this. But I was attacked by some sort of hijacking and it was not removable with Symantec. My company had to bring in a SWAT team to remove it.

 

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

The part I find disturbing is the fact that they had your address. An E-Mail address is very easy to obtain. A name can be obtained if you signed up for something and got on a list. But an address? The alarm bells would be going off for me if I got an E-mail with my address in it, even if it was an old address.

What I also find strange is that this doesn't seem like spam at all; unless it's a new type of spam that tries to garner interest in Freight Rail by E-Mailing congress members.. It just seems off to me.

I couldn't find any mention of people receiving similar E-Mail on the net. It's a real mystery.

 

[Freethinker]

Is that email address by chance used someplace where it would be linked to your maiden name such as a high school or college alumni site? It's not difficult to harvest such information if it's there. Just speculation on where your maiden name would most likely appear on the web.

 

[BPSCG]

it also looks like the source is from, or near the city of Reston.

AOL is headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, just a mile or two west of the Verizon address (1880 Campus Commons Drive in Reston).

I have no idea whether this is significant or not.