help please appear to have been hijacked!

sassi

anyone else get loads of spam like

VickiPhallusMassive
pen*sRobertWider
LauraCo*kHunky
you get the idea?


they started arriving in last few weeks, and are from a site called ikeir.com who claim to sell some sort of pills to enhance a certain part of a man.
i only enter comps and email my dad and brother from this addy, so its gotta be my details have been sold to this spam company from a comp somewhere?

originating emaill addys are all diff though, though similar, so can't block the addy, and marking as spam has no effect.

am i the only one?

i have been getting a few emails from them at least once every half hour for the past few weeks.
driving me nuts!

Fritha_2

white*star wrote: »

have downloaded AVG/Ad-Aware/Spybot/CC-Cleaner to protect PC, but still not sure what they all do TBH

AVG is a virus protector, just in case you're not sure viruses can do loads of really icky things, some wipe stuff from your computer (put very simply!), some use it to send spam emails, some can even use your computer to shut down websites like in a DDOS attack, and probably a load of other stuff that I don't know about becuase Mr Fritha isn't here! A Trojan Horse does what it says on the tin, it comes in hidden behind an inocuous looking programme, which is why you should only open files from trusted sources.

Ad-aware cleans cookies and spyware off your computer, if I understand correctly loads of website put a cookie on your computer, they just store your information to make it easier to use the website next time (like log ins and stuff) ad aware deletes cookies that are spying on you and tracking what you're doing.

Spybot does basically the same thing as ad aware I think, I don't know the programme to be honest.

C-cleaner cleans pretty mucyh anything you don't need off your computer so it'll delete all the cookies (regardless of whether they're ok or not, but you can set it to leave cookies from the sites that you like!) and stuff in your Temporary Internet Files and trash can and things It's a groovy thing.

I hope that helps and I really really hope I've got everything right, when Himself reappears I'll get him to check and make any necessary edits (and probably add a load!)

Fritha_2

Sassi, I'd say your details have been sold or just generally found out, it happens to everyone at some point unfortunately. It does sound somewhat excessive, if I were you I'd either just keep that address for comping and get a new address to email your dad and brother, or just get rid of it completely (but check it occasionally in case of WEMs!) and start again with a new comping address and a new emailing your dad and brother address?

Fritha_2

sarerb18 wrote: »

I did run Adaware and it came up with one critical item which I got rid of.

Adaware isn't a virus scanner it just looks at your cookies so it probably won't pick up a Trojan that has sneaked on. You probably already know and have done it but did you run a virus checker as well, something like AVG is good (and free) :-)

tommybow

Hi,got a letter asking me to register my business inthe phone book,
funny thing is i don't have a business,so i guess it's not just e-mail addresses
ther using.......

elver_man

Hi all

I have been using the Gloucester on line site for some time now and have refrained from posting the comps until i was fairly certain that this was a good site. I entered the comps myself the other day and as yet i have not had (or been told) that my e mail address book has been hijacked.

Having googled Thomas Cole it comes back with a link to Dan King who is the person who posted the comp on the Gloucester site. So i presume this is the comp confirmation / acknowlegement. (i had not clicked these yet as i didn't know who or what Thomas Cole was)


I also have had a few comps return e mails in the last week but from trusted sites and i would normaly expect these over the christmas period.

I am sorry if it was the Gloucester site that caused peoples problems but i only posted the comps on here after entering myself.

Running a scan on my system this morning did not identify any probs.

white_star

Thanks again Fritha :T for taking the time and trouble to help me understand a little bit about the security systems I have downloaded. It was very helpful

suec

If you are using outlook express why dont you block the sender of the email . that way at least they wont be able to come into your inbox.

sarerb18

Fritha wrote: »

Adaware isn't a virus scanner it just looks at your cookies so it probably won't pick up a Trojan that has sneaked on. You probably already know and have done it but did you run a virus checker as well, something like AVG is good (and free) :-)

Already have AVG and Zone Alarms as well as CCleaner (use every time I shut down) and Adaware, who said I'm paranoid.

Ok not sure if it was a Trojan but Adaware described it as a critical item.
I found out about it for those who asked because I was sent a failed email notice and it listed all the addresses that had been sent this email and the two that failed.
Maybe good things have come out of it if some of us (including me)are more alert after all our country needs lerts (that ages me):D
sarer

Thanks for all the help everyone, nice to know you're out there. Happy New Year.