email not from me sent from my hotmail account

no.1swimmum

I have just discovered that an email recommending a website has been sent from my hotmail account, it did not originate from me but appears to, and has been sent to everyone in my address book. I have not opened any unknown emails - I never do, if I don;t know who its from it gets deleted. I have changed my password, do you think that I should do anything else to protect myself.

Thanks

jb66

update your antivirus software and do a full scan

mr_fishbulb

Got a feeling it may be a bot on your machine. From reading lots of similar posts on here and having a google.

This article suggests running something like this to check - http://free.antivirus.com/rubotted

First I've heard of that app though (not first time I've heard of Trend).

no.1swimmum

Thanks, I have run a full scan on my laptop and found nothing, but the email was timed around 3.30 pm, whilst i was at work, so will speak to IT people tomorrow and ask them to check for problems

9wizard9

Was your home computer switched on at the time (assuming you don't use your hotmail account at work)?

It could just be someone spoofing your address (pretending to be you) - the protocol used to send email is very insecure and it's very easy for someone to send mail using a fake address. The one thing that would worry me is the fact that it was sent to everyone in your address book - that would seem to imply some sort of malware on your machine. However, if it was switched off at the time it's less likely to be that (unless someone has started harvesting hotmail address books for later use).

If you've got up to date antivirus software and have changed your hotmail password recently, then probably little else you can do about it (unless anyone else has any ideas).

Dime_Bar

I have had a couple of these from contacts today so I guess there is something around. as the otyher posters have said update and run your AV and maybe run an online scan like Trend House Call.

It is possible that your password has been compromised and therefore the email was sent from your account and not from your machine, what I would do is use a computer you have not used before but know is safe (work or a friends) and then log onto Hotmail and change your password.