Think I have been hacked

calleyw

I have just had a text from my SIL to say I had sent her an e-mail and it looked dodgy.

I have logged in to my yahoo.com e-mail and found a load of message that I have not sent. Not sure where the address were pulled from as they are not in my contacts list.

In have of course just changed my password. I use zone alarms on my machine so don't think that someone has hacked my machine.

I have had this yahoo account for years so not sure what has happened, I try and be really careful not down loading anything I don't think I should.

Anything else I need to do?

Thanks in advance

Yours

Calley

macman

Are the dodgy messages in your 'Sent' folder? If not, you haven't been hacked, it's just address spoofing. If they are, you have been hacked. I'd run a full AV scan to check for malware-what AV do you use (Zone Alarm is a firewall, not an AV program).
Changing your password to something more secure was a wise precaution though.

Figment

macman wrote: »

Are the dodgy messages in your 'Sent' folder? If not, you haven't been hacked, it's just address spoofing. If they are, you have been hacked. I'd run a full AV scan to check for malware-what AV do you use (Zone Alarm is a firewall, not an AV program).
Changing your password to something more secure was a wise precaution though.

Zone Alarm is Anti-Virus too these days

http://www.zonealarm.co.uk/

Ant555

There have been quite a few posts on here recently about this type of issue. As already suggested, (if its web mail) and if they are NOT in your sent items then its unlikely its you that has been hacked.

See below for an explanation I recently posted on here to someone else that may help you fathom out what has happened.


Its likely someone you know has a problem, that person probably has a similar list of contacts to you, the infection on their PC is secretly sending out random messages/junk to everyone in that address book and 'pretending' to be one of the people in that address book. In this instance it has selected your address so people that are receiving the junk messages think its from you - this helps hide the original infection and keep the cycle running for longer.
Oh, and any messages that get 'bounced' by other peoples email systems wil be returned to whoever they think is sending the message, in this instance thats your email address which is why you are seeing them in your own inbox. - A bit like someone writing your home address as a 'return address' on the back of every letter they put in a postbox, if its undeliverable the Post Office will send it back to who it appears sent it in the first place, It will eventually pop through your door even though its not really from you.

Hope this helps

calleyw

macman wrote: »

Are the dodgy messages in your 'Sent' folder? If not, you haven't been hacked, it's just address spoofing. If they are, you have been hacked. I'd run a full AV scan to check for malware-what AV do you use (Zone Alarm is a firewall, not an AV program).
Changing your password to something more secure was a wise precaution though.

I don't want to appear rude, but I am well aware that zone alarm is firewall. I always run a firewall and AV (avira) at all times as I am paranoid.

I was in hurry this morning to get out the door. But no they are not in my sent mail. I also can see that I have an out of office reply from someone I have no idea who they are!!!!

I do understand about address spoofing making it looking like message is from me when it is not.

Not sure about someone else being infected. As a couple of the contacts no one else who I know would have those addresses.

Yours

Calley

macman

You've got an out of office reply because any spam that bounces back will be directed to your address, not to the spamming server.
If thty're not in your Sent folder, you've not been hacked, and the spam did not originate from your PC.

Fire_Fox

Can you run Zone Alarm and Avira together if both are anti virus? Genuine question, I just know some fight if you run more than one.

macman

I'd assumed that ZA was just the firewall program.