Hotmail email problems - help please

judy2357

Someone is sending emails through my Hotmail account to all my contacts on a regular basis and I do not know how to prevent this happening. The email goes as follows:-

hey ,bro ! if you need famous brand of electronic products iPhone ,Nokia ,Camera,Laptop even MOtorcycle with original quality and international warranty for your business or use ,i find a nice business www.electronics-trademall.com their items are original but price is very good as wholesale business. There is much profit i think. maybe you can contact them directly : E-mail : [EMAIL="electronic_trademall@188.com"]electronic_trademall@188.com[/EMAIL] MSN: [EMAIL="electronics-trademall@hotmail.com"]electronics-trademall@hotmail.com[/EMAIL]
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Ive changed my password but this still keeps happening and my contacts are getting a bit fed up with receiving it. Any help would be appreciated please.

Browntoa

change everything , secret password , add a 2nd email address etc

use a really long password like moneysavingexpert12zyx

assume you log onto hotmail and not use otulook express

Browntoa

to check you have not got a keylogger on your PC

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop.

• Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
• Double-click on mbam-setup.exe to install the application.
• When the installation begins, follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
• When installation has finished, make sure you leave both of these checked:
  • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Then click Finish.
• MBAM will automatically start and you will be asked to update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, the program will automatically update itself. Press the OK button to close that box and continue. If you encounter any problems while downloading the updates, manually download them from here and just double-click on mbam-rules.exe to install.
• On the Scanner tab:
  • Make sure the "Perform Quick Scan" option is selected.
  • Then click on the Scan button.
• If asked to select the drives to scan, leave all the drives selected and click on the Start Scan button.
• The scan will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It may take some time to complete so please be patient.
• When the scan is finished, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found".
• Click OK to close the message box and continue with the removal process.
• Back at the main Scanner screen, click on the Show Results button to see a list of any malware that was found.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When removal is completed, a log report will open in Notepad.
• The log is automatically saved and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.
• Copy and paste the contents of that report in your next reply and exit MBAM.

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you may be asked to reboot your computer so it can proceed with the disinfection process. Regardless if prompted to restart the computer or not, please do so immediately. Failure to reboot normally (not into safe mode) will prevent MBAM from removing all the malware. MBAM may make changes to your registry as part of its disinfection routine. If you're using other security programs that detect registry changes, they may alert you after scanning with MBAM. Please permit the program to allow

cooltt

Yep you got a key logger alright.

judy2357

cooltt wrote: »

Yep you got a key logger alright.

Sorry to sound ignorant but what is a keylogger?

cooltt

It's a programme that hides on your pc and records all your keystrokes then sends the info back to whoever put it there. It's kind of like a virus, it would explain why they keep guesing your password. You need to get the programme that Browntoa has said to find and remove it.

robt_2

judy2357 wrote: »

Sorry to sound ignorant but what is a keylogger?

Something that does what it says on the tin

If you have one, the person has seen you asking what one is and will know the game is up soon.

Windows has an onscreen keyboard you can use to set your new password with in the short term to stop it being logged.

judy2357

Have downloaded the program suggested by Browntoa and run it through my laptop but all the results were that there was nothing malicious found, sorry cant quite remember the phrase. My OH has run windows defender and run a system scan through Avira, so is there anything else that I should do, except wait and see if it happens again.

By the way I am sincerely grateful for all your help advice and suggestions.

judy2357

robt wrote: »

Something that does what it says on the tin

If you have one, the person has seen you asking what one is and will know the game is up soon.

Windows has an onscreen keyboard you can use to set your new password with in the short term to stop it being logged.

Will try and find this tomorrow and give it a go. Thanks

mightywhites29111971

I have been having this problem also. I have a macbook pro and cannot use malwarebytes. I have scanned with Clamxav but that has found nothing. Any ideas please?

-TangleFoot-

robt wrote: »

Windows has an onscreen keyboard you can use to set your new password with in the short term to stop it being logged.

Are you absolutely certain of that? For that matter, what makes you think that a keylogger is the culprit? It could just as easily be an automated program using the mail client itself to send messages, or even just a case of forged headers!

Most on screen keyboards (such as the onscreen keyboard that comes with Microsoft Windows XP) send keyboard event messages to the external target program to type text. Every software keylogger can log these typed characters sent from one program to another. Additionally, some programs also record or take snapshots of what is displayed on the screen (periodically, and/or upon each mouse click).