A little advice please

katies_mum

I have had 4 emails this afternoon from friends saying I have sent them an email they can`t open! then a friend rang me to say her son had told her I have a virus.
I have run an Avast scan and it was clear and Malwarebytes and its showing nothing.
I`m not sure if I have a virus or what to do, please can anyone help, I`ve not opened or gone into any bank accounts etc today.
Thanks

debitcardmayhem

katies_mum wrote: »

I have had 4 emails this afternoon from friends saying I have sent them an email they can`t open! then a friend rang me to say her son had told her I have a virus.
I have run an Avast scan and it was clear and Malwarebytes and its showing nothing.
I`m not sure if I have a virus or what to do, please can anyone help, I`ve not opened or gone into any bank accounts etc today.
Thanks

Is your email account accessed via your browser? first thing to do is change your password, it may be someone has guessed / cracked it , and I assume all your contacts are stored online with that account?

macman

Have you actually sent these emails? Are they showing in your Sent folder?
If no, then it's just address spoofing and you can do nothing about it. If yes, then your email account has been hacked and the first thing you need to do is to change the password.

debitcardmayhem

macman wrote: »

Have you actually sent these emails? Are they showing in your Sent folder?
If no, then it's just address spoofing and you can do nothing about it. If yes, then your email account has been hacked and the first thing you need to do is to change the password.

Not related to spoofing at all IMO , it is the contact list that has been compromised either via hacking or seriously poor social media use. Spoofing would result in emails being sent to anyone on the spoofer's list and the chances of finding 4 of their friends (the op's) is virtually impossible.

macman

I would agree, given the details provided, but it's very easy to eliminate spoofing by checking as I suggested.

debitcardmayhem

I would disagree , having got hold of the the account details and contact list I could send spam/virus/whatever using any good old client eg Thunderbird and none of it will get in the sent box. Just argueing cos I can but OP needs to change password first.

katies_mum

Hi, I have just got in from work and have checked my sent list and there listed are emails I have sent to everyone on my contact list (but I havn`t sent any of them if that makes sense!) don`t know what to do now. What info have they got of mine?

Need to get into hotmail and change my password as your have advised, but they already have all the info don`t they?

Help!! thanks

macman

Your contacts list has been harvested, yes. But you must change the password immediately before someone else does. If that happens, then you will have lost access to the account.
And this time make the password stronger.

debitcardmayhem

macman wrote: »

Your contacts list has been harvested, yes. But you must change the password immediately before someone else does. If that happens, then you will have lost access to the account.
And this time make the password stronger.

To echo what macman says also make sure all of your passwords for online accounts (eg here and facebook etc)are strong and preferably different.

katies_mum

Thank you I have changed my password for hotmail, didn`t realise I would have to change them for MSE forum but will do.

My biggest worry is that I do online banking will that be ok?

When you say my contact list has been harvested what exactly does that mean please?

Should I be getting myself a new email address?

As always I am grateful for your advice and for helping me.

debitcardmayhem

katies_mum wrote: »

Thank you I have changed my password for hotmail, didn`t realise I would have to change them for MSE forum but will do.

My biggest worry is that I do online banking will that be ok?

When you say my contact list has been harvested what exactly does that mean please?

Should I be getting myself a new email address?

As always I am grateful for your advice and for helping me.

It is better to use different passwords for each online service you use, just in case.
The harvesting macman is referring to is the fact that they got in to your email account and I assume that you keep all your contacts online on that account. Now the perpetrator has it he can use it as he wishes, usually having got rid of his access then he/she can still spoof emails as if they are from you, but changing email addresses is a real pain in the (what you sit on).

If it is your on-line email address that is suffering , and not your PC then the online banking should be OK , except that if you have emails from your bank or other accounts , and they are stored on line then the call is yours, the banking should be OK depending on the bank of course. But if your other accounts eg Amazon,Paypal and others as long you did not use the same password then they should be reasonably ok, but be vigilant.

Most of the occurrences you have suggested (ie emails) tend just to be that, they target people from your address book and they may be affected more than you. You have already scanned the PC with Avast and Malwarebytes (I hope you updated that first) it would be a fair assumption that it is just your email account.

Personally I would not keep my contacts online, nor emails (until I have accessed them myself which of course means they will be online until I download them).

At the end of the day you will probably be OK but please think seriously about being cautious of sign-ons and passwords. It may pay you to use another free email account (eg GMX/GMail/Yahoomail etc) to sign up for any online service.

Sorry to be so long winded and good luck