Hotmail virus/malware/trojan problem

[EJK]

About 3 weeks ago I found out all of my contacts were deleted and now it's autmatically sending out spam mails.

I changed the password last week, scanned AVG, ESET Online, and CleanUp!'ed but I just found out that the problem still exists.

Any ideas to cure?

[avgas]

There is no cure for addiction to free porn.

[EJK]

There is no cure for addiction to free porn.

The only porn I've accessed with this computer is Lamborghini, Porsche and Bentley.


...ah yeah, you are right. Temptation is inevitable.

[scissorhands]

Uninstall the infected browser or email client or both, turn off, restart, install spyblaster, run all scans, install new browser?

[EJK]

I figured a theory (read from some other forum) from someone who had the same experience.

His problem was, someone or something "harvested" his email with all of his contact details and used his email address as "from" address and was sending all the junk to this "harvested' email addresses. So maybe it's not a virus/ spyware that can be just "deleted". Correct me and help me if I'm wrong.

I just decided to terminate my current and use my gmail from now on.

[slofox]

I figured a theory (read from some other forum) from someone who had the same experience.

His problem was, someone or something "harvested" his email with all of his contact details and used his email address as "from" address and was sending all the junk to this "harvested' email addresses. So maybe it's not a virus/ spyware that can be just "deleted". Correct me and help me if I'm wrong.

I just decided to terminate my current and use my gmail from now on.

RNZ had an item on this stuff last week...sounded very hard to fix...

[Gremlin]

His problem was, someone or something "harvested" his email with all of his contact details and used his email address as "from" address and was sending all the junk to this "harvested' email addresses. So maybe it's not a virus/ spyware that can be just "deleted". Correct me and help me if I'm wrong.

IF this is the case... no, there is pretty much nothing you can do about it, other than change email address.

It is actually quite easy to send out email as abc@def.com (insert anything you like) to whomever you wish. When it fails, which it probably will (because it toootally looks like spam) it will be sent back to the sender (how email works). The sender is... abc@def.com. If this happens to be your email address... congratulations, you now probably get a bunch of Permanent Delivery Failure messages.

[EJK]

IF this is the case... no, there is pretty much nothing you can do about it, other than change email address.

It is actually quite easy to send out email as abc@def.com (insert anything you like) to whomever you wish. When it fails, which it probably will (because it toootally looks like spam) it will be sent back to the sender (how email works). The sender is... abc@def.com. If this happens to be your email address... congratulations, you now probably get a bunch of Permanent Delivery Failure messages.

Exactly.

I asked everyone on my MSN to ban and delete me and mark me as spam. Funny.

[Gremlin]

The only catch, if you can see the sent spam emails in your sent items, then you have much bigger issues...

But yes... getting rid of the email address altogether should fix the problem

[EJK]

Done and done. Gosh shifting email is like shifting a house.
It took me all day to verify a new email address from all sort of places, school, forums, facebook etc... gah!
Download all emails from old one, save it on to my computer etc...

What a day!

[YellowDog]

This online scan is quite good:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/au/

Once the integrity of your address book has been compromised, emails may also be originating from elsewhere.

Good luck.

[Urano]

it's the microsoft's curse.

switch to gmail. not as innocent as a baby but still better than hotmail...