Back in September, several individuals in my address book notified me that they had received an email from me that didn't make sense. The subject line was blank, and the content was some link with no commentary. To make a long story short, I deleted my address book, but the problem recurred. Then I migrated to a new computer running Windows 7, with Windows Live Mail. Also, I started using the Norton Security Suite.
But now I have a similar problem: two individuals with whom I have corresponded have received similar impostor emails. I no longer use an address book. The Norton scan found no problem on my computer.
I would appreciate any suggestions on how to resolve this. Thanks for reading this.
The problem is most likely not on your computer. It sounds like your email account was compromised: Someone got ahold of your password (probably through a phishing scam), accessed the account and is now spamming everyone in your contact list. Two good articles on how to clean up the mess:
Note that the spammer now has your contacts' email addresses and may be sending them spam from a different account but putting your email address in the "From" field, known as address spoofing. Like putting a fraudulent return address on a letter sent through the postal system, there would be little you could do to stop this if it is what is happening now.