Virus sending spam emails from me?

Beckyy

This morning I (luckily) had an email delivery failure notification for a few old email addresses, I had a look at my sent folder and found out I'd 'sent' a load of spam emails to various contacts, very embarassing to say the least.

I currently have a full virus scan running (Microsoft Security Essentials), but as of yet have not found anything. Does anybody know how I can ensure this doesn't happen again. Is it a virus, or something else?

I use hotmail.

Ximian

It sounds like your email account may have been compromised since the spam is in your sent folder as opposed to someone spoofing your email address. You can also confirm the IP Address of where the email was sent from, if you select the spam message from the sent folder and view the full headers you might see that the IP Address matches your IP Address or not. You should see a line such as:
Received: from [10.20.30.40] where 10.20.30.40 is your IP Address assigned by your ISP. To find out your IP Address browse to: http://www.whatismyip.com/

If the spam IP Address matches your IP Address then the spam has probably been sent from your machine. To be on the safe side I would recommend changing your Hotmail password but only after making sure that your computer is clean. I recommend scanning your computer for viruses as well as installing Malwarebytes and then run the latest Malwarebytes update and scan your computer for malware: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

WhiteChristmas

Deleted becaus eI misread the original post - Ximian is right.

Beckyy

Thank you for the replies. I can't seem to be able to find the ip address on the sent messages. I've changed my password though, and will change it again after the virus scans, as Malwarebytes is currently showing 1 infected object and still scanning.

Just need to apologise to all the people who I'm not close to and have sent emails about erectile disfunction and weight loss pills now...

WhiteChristmas

Fingers crossed that the weight loss pill went to your ultra-athletic 22 year-old brother and that the viagra went to your fat cousin. That way around, they'll see the funny side.

Otherwise, you might want this...

http://www.doverport.co.uk/?page=FerryTimetables

Ximian

Beckyy wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I can't seem to be able to find the ip address on the sent messages.

If you're running Hotmail Live you can view the full headers by clicking on "Actions" and then "Show details" for more info:http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_view_full_headers_in_windows_live_hotmail.html

Also, right clicking on the message might bring up a menu where you can select "View Source"

Beckyy

Thank you! They weren't sent from my IP, so I'm assuming it was my password that had been compromised and used somewhere else to send them?

Malwarebytes flagged up two things which my normal virus protector didn't - one trojan, and some adware in my registry. Both deleted now, so I'm hoping that gone and a password change will make sure it doesn't happen again.