e-mail virus

[wupwup]

hey guys. the other day i got an email from a friend RE:hi so i opened it. it was obviously spam saying something about how google was paying them loads. i ignored it. now ive noticed that my hotmail account keeps spamming my adress book with similar messages. what do i do? is it a PC virus? because i reinstalled the OS only a few months ago. or is it a hacked account? thanks

[Pantsalot]

Happened to me & my brother as well, all I did was change my password & it went away.
& as for the spam e-mails you ignore, I recommend getting rid of them completely, burn them with fire if need be.

[wupwup]

Dose that meen someone has my password? I'm trying to remember if I've used it for anything important. Probably alot

[Omnipotent-Q]

Dose that meen someone has my password? I'm trying to remember if I've used it for anything important. Probably alot

Unlikely. What is probably the case is you've got a bit of Malware that's key logged your password. I would highly recommend changing your hotmail password on a computer other than the one you usually use and don't login to your account on your normal machine until you're sure the system is clean of viruses/malware etc.

• Download a copy of Hijack This (a mere 1.34 megabytes)
• Do a system scan and save a logfile
• Post the logfile here

There's a number of people here that will be able to look at it and identify what the problem is if I don't get to it first!

[wupwup]

if ive got a key logger im screwed. ive been doing credit card related stuff on here. would it be easier to just do an OS reinstall? i have the disk lying around and i dont think i have any important documents. looks like i need a new password. one thing that realy annoys me with my current one is i have a few variations. some times its too short e.c.t. is there a list of parameters anywhere that i can use to make a password that works everywhere from? thanks

[Omnipotent-Q]

if ive got a key logger im screwed. ive been doing credit card related stuff on here. would it be easier to just do an OS reinstall? i have the disk lying around and i dont think i have any important documents. looks like i need a new password. one thing that realy annoys me with my current one is i have a few variations. some times its too short e.c.t. is there a list of parameters anywhere that i can use to make a password that works everywhere from? thanks

Thinking about it the method probably isn't a key logger - I mean it will simply malware aimed at getting hotmail passwords (They shoot out an email, other people visit the link in the email, they get the malware, their account gets compromised - that accounts sends out loads of emails). On consideration - it's most likely the case that you or someone who uses your computer clicked on the malware link in an email, it loaded the malware onto your computer, and then it either re-directed you to a fake hotmail login somewhere on the net. A reinstall would be a bit OTT I think.

If you've got some anti-virus software, have it scan your system thoroughly. If not there's plenty of options - SpyWare Search and Destroy would be the most effective choice in this situation, Avast is a free anti-virus of which I think is a lot better than pay for McAfee. If you want more specific help, then you'll have to post up a Hijack This log or similar!

[Pantsalot]

Don't worry about your credit card details being stolen, it seems to be a solely hotmail problem that doesn't
go any further, no-one I know who's had this problem has had any of their other details stolen, can barely
tell if even their e-mail was "stolen", just used.

[wupwup]

yeah i opened an email similar to these so thats probably why. no links though (well none that i clicked) it dosnt look like it has acturaly sent any emails. i only noticed becasue i had a load of messages in my inbox from the postmaster saying emails couldnt be delivered. ive already got spybot and comodo firewall and avast so i will do a few scans. cheers

[Pantsalot]

You merely have to look at the e-mail to receive the malware it appears to me, I looked at one I recieved,
noticed a link but didn't click it & then I just left it in my inbox to reference to the sender, wasn't long before
I started sending them out silly me.