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PC problem


Dnk
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I've had this 3 times now where people in my email address book are getting spam emails

from my computer

 

I've changed passwords on each occasion but it's just happened again today.

 

Is there anything i can do to stop this.

 

Answers please in non IT form :)

 

Thanks

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This assumes that you're using an email program like Outlook, and not just using a web-based email like gmail or Yahoo mail etc: .....

 

Action: I would run some antivirus software. Something like Avast is good and free, or use your own choice of AV software. Also run MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (also free: it looks for a different kind of malware than Avast). Running both should cover you pretty well.

 

Reason: if there's a virus on your computer that's looking through your address book and spamming people it finds, it's unlikely that it uses your password to send the emails. It's likely to be some code that runs when you use your email program. Hence whatever your password is, it just waits for you to log in to your emails and then it'll do its spamming.

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I assume that your email is web based i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo?

 

More than likely your email account has been compromised so your address book is already public knowledge or malware, If so the only thing I found that worked was to delete all contacts and move them to a new email address, this worked for me as I had same issue as you are having now as i done a malware sweep and found nothing.

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I assume that your email is web based i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo?

 

More than likely your email account has been compromised so your address book is already public knowledge or malware, If so the only thing I found that worked was to delete all contacts and move them to a new email address, this worked for me as I had same issue as you are having now as i done a malware sweep and found nothing.

 

Not impressed if i have to do that !

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How are you accessing your BT account? If it's via IE, you may have an addon that's hijacking your account once you are logged in. The same goes for google chrome. That's assuming it's a client based software. If it's outlook or windows live mail then Avast and Malwarebytes should have caught them.

 

Just as an addition to this. I would suggest running a boot time scan with Avast. It can find a lot of things that the Windows client won't due to access restrictions. I'm not sure if this is available with the free version. I highly recommend getting Avast pro, ie paying for it, it's a brilliant AV and I've been with them for around 10 years now.

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Yeh doesn't sound like your account is currently compromised or your pc infected. Sounds like someone is basically pretending to be you and has your contacts already as at some point your account was compromised or your PC was infected.

 

It's called "Spoofing" and there's not much you can do about it besides inform your friends I don't think. Someone more knowledgeable about it might tell you otherwise.

 

Contacting BT to inform them and ask for advice might be the best option.

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Erm i've no idea lol

 

Avast gave me a warning about not liking the AVG toolbar earlier

 

I have AVG internet security on my pc

 

I don't like any extensions/toolbars. I periodically check to make sure none are installed. I also tick the "developer" option to make sure there's nothing hidden.

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Really doubt deleting extensions is going to make much difference. As someone else above suggested, just inform contacts that your address was cloned and hope it goes away.

 

It would if it was a malicious extension sending emails from his account while he was logged in via Chrome though.

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It may be a pain Dunk but try and keep note of when you have logged into your email. That way if one of your contacts receives a malicious email from yourself, you can check the time it was sent and see if that ties in with a time you were online. If it doesn't, then the likely scenario is that you have simply been cloned.

 

It's also important to ask these contacts to identify the contact that sent the email. It's easy to change the name on an email, it's a little more tricky to change the "sent" address though. If it's definitely your exact email address then it's either from your actual account, or it's done using a email spoofer program/code.

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Erm i've no idea lol

 

Avast gave me a warning about not liking the AVG toolbar earlier

 

I have AVG internet security on my pc

 

errm .... you have Avast and AVG?

 

decide which one you want and remove the other. You shouldnt run 2 AV at the same time.

 

AVG toolbar is fine. I usually dont like them myself but found the AVG one to be useful on occasion.

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