My PC is sending spam mails

H

huwbie

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I was recently barred from e-bay for sending spam type emails to other users. This, as you can imagine, came as a huge surprise as I knew nothing about it. I upgraded my Norton to 2008 internet security and indeed I can now see that my PC is sending the usual "increase your penis size" spam mails. HELP
I use gmail as my mail service, and they're not coming from there.
Norton does not seem to recognise any virus on my system; what is going on? And how do I get rid of it?
 
Check the "clean PC" thread pinned at the top of this forum for tips on dealing with this sort of situation.
 
huwbie said:
I was recently barred from e-bay for sending spam type emails to other users. This, as you can imagine, came as a huge surprise as I knew nothing about it. I upgraded my Norton to 2008 internet security and indeed I can now see that my PC is sending the usual "increase your penis size" spam mails. HELP
I use gmail as my mail service, and they're not coming from there.
Norton does not seem to recognise any virus on my system; what is going on? And how do I get rid of it?
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It must be a virus has accessed your address book and is mailing to all of those recipients.
 
My address book is stored online at gmail and not on my pc. the adressees of the mail are not nkown to me.
 
huwbie said:
My address book is stored online at gmail and not on my pc. the adressees of the mail are not nkown to me.
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I doubt it has a lot to do with your pc. It would be something that has been activated at your e-mail a/c and has launched spam. Unfortunately I don't know how to solve this, as it's never happened to me. (*touch wood*)
 
Norton is rubbish. Uninstall and use something else. You've installed a bot which is sending out email. You need to block it with a firewall then wipe it with a AV solution like AVG. Also search your machine for spyware using Spybot and other such programs.
 
huwbie said:
I did and can't find any specific help!
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You mean in the "clean PC" thread? The advice there is mostly general but taken together with the tools recommended should help to identify and fix the specific problem on your PC. You need to start looking at the sorts of tools that will help here. I agree with the comment about ditching Norton. There are free tools that do as good if not better a job and are much less resource intensive.
 
Thanks for the advice, but I've ran spybot and am immunized, am running firefox have tried two different firewalls. I've removed outlook from my system (as I use an online service). I'll try avg when I get home.(At work now).
 
Do you know how to use a firewall? A Firewalls locks down all internet traffic if you are using it properly. Perhaps this is a new bot that ther AV and spyware software doesn't know about. I found that X-Cleaner finds things that some of the others don't. Try the trial of it. With AV/Spyware software you have to try a combination of programs. Not rely on on or two. AVG Any Spyware is another one to try. Also Trend Micro™ HijackThis.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Trend_Micro_HijackThis_d5554.html
http://www.xblock.com/
 
ClubMan said:
There are free tools that do as good if not better a job and are much less resource intensive.
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Hi Clubman - could you outline some of the free tools - I see AVG is listed on the "Clean PC" thread? I use Norton and would be interested in hearing about other options. Thanks
 
One idea I heard to prevent this kind of thing is to enter a fictitious address at the beginning of your email address book e.g.

aaa@cxnbxu*O&^%Rv.ie

I think some 'mailer' type bugs give up if the first address doesn't work?

Not entirely sure about this though.
 
Caveat said:
One idea I heard to prevent this kind of thing is to enter a fictitious address at the beginning of your email address book e.g.

aaa@cxnbxu*O&^%Rv.ie

I think some 'mailer' type bugs give up if the first address doesn't work?

Not entirely sure about this though.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the OP's computer has been turned into a bot (an example of which is detailed here) - this will not use the OP's email addresses list, it uses its own massive list of emails to send spam
 
Happened to me on my previous e-mail address. I think someone was just using my e-mail address, not my PC, to send spam. The only way I noticed was I received the spam in my inbox if the receivers were unknown. Never managed to solve the problem.
 
sabre Man said:
I think someone was just using my e-mail address, not my PC, to send spam.
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I also got spam from "myself", even thoughit did NOT come from my machine. I reckon the address was harvested from someone else's address book and "spoofed".

I use a "disposable" email address, e.g. "rubbish1@wherever.com" for online purchases, public mailing, etc. When it gets hit very badly by spam, I open a new account, rubbish2, etc. Another option, if your email address is going to be posted on, say, a website, is a tool I've found handy, http://www.farook.org/MailCoder10.exe. This converts your email address into a format that spammerbots can't read.

As previous posters recommended, run Hijackthis! periodically.
 
your best bet is to go onlie to Ewido, and they will do an online scan for you &clean your machine free. i use them & find them very good
 
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