Hi David
If you're confident that your tiscali email address no longer exists then your email address is being spoofed.
You can check to see if your mailbox is still active. Send the email address a mail message and see if you get an immediate bounceback error message saying 'Undeliverable' that means the mailbox isn't active.
Then enter the email address at Verifalia, an external website that verifies if an email address exists. Enter the email address, complete the reCAPTCHA and select the Validate button. Does the top line response say 'Deliverable' or something else?
Finally, use the Reset password now button in the Help page Changing your email password to see if you get a deleted or no domain error message or if you actually do have password recovery options saved.
Let us know the outcome in each case. If the email address is still active but left with a weak password then it may have been compromised. Action is needed to secure the account and upgrade the password.
If your email address was previously involved in a data breach you can obtain information on known data breaches via https://haveibeenpwned.com which is a trusted source. Scammers will use databases of known email addresses in spoofing attacks. It's possible that scammers have obtained an email from your tiscali address to your friend.
However, I feel the most likely thing to have happened is that your friend's email has been compromised and a list of contact addresses obtained. So, the scammer is targeting your friend by spoofing your email address in the hope that your friend will trust that the mail messages is from you. The best advice you can offer to your friend is to scan their devices to remove password capturing virus, trojan or other malware and then upgrade the password.
Phishing emails & everything you need to know
Compromised or spoofed accounts
