Being bombarded with 'delivery failure' emails

For the past three weeks I've been bombarded with emails referring to 'failure to deliver' and also other nonsense ones.I'm deleting them all but I'm wondering how they started and how I can get rid of them.Please help a little old English lady!

 

Assuming your PC is virus free (and you are running up-to-date AntiVirus software) then the problem is not caused by you, nor can you "fix it"

Someone, somewhere has your email address in their address book, and they have an active virus on their PC.
The virus "spoofs" your address as the sender and bombards virused emails to all other addresses.

The addresses that are wrong, outdated etc will bounce the emails back but as they "appear" to be from you, they come back to you.

Apart from cancelling your email address and getting a new one there is not much you can do.

Its a classic reason why everyone needs to maintain vigilance with AntiVirus software, as the problems of not having it are reflected on your "friends" that are in the infected computer address book.

 

Thanks for the prompt reply Kiwiguy;my anti-virus software is up to date and runs a check every morning.I think the easiest thing to do is change my email address.Thanks again. x