Hi
First time poster and any replies will have to be in simple terms 
Im using AOL as my email/ISP provider and use Norton 360 which I thought was covering everything nicely. Until I checked emails and find over 120 emails returned to me, which have been sent out as spam from my PC or email address.
I even got spammed from my own email address. I thought Norton was meant to stop this sort of thing as it looks like my email system has been hacked or something although nothing has showed up on Norton at all.
Any advice on how to sort this out would be grateful.
Hello banner12 and welcome!
If you are using the AOL web based portal to access your mail, no security product can protect your email at that level. Norton and other security programs are designed to offer protection through an installed email client such as Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.
Without more information it is difficult to determine, but it is possible that your email account has either been hacked or spoofed.
1) Check your "Sent Folder" to see if any of these messages are listed there.
2) Change your AOL email password immediately.
3) Let us know if you are using the web based mail system or an onboard email client.
4) Do you notice any other unusual activity with your computer?
Thanks!
banner12 wrote:
Hi
First time poster and any replies will have to be in simple terms 
Im using AOL as my email/ISP provider and use Norton 360 which I thought was covering everything nicely. Until I checked emails and find over 120 emails returned to me, which have been sent out as spam from my PC or email address.
I even got spammed from my own email address. I thought Norton was meant to stop this sort of thing as it looks like my email system has been hacked or something although nothing has showed up on Norton at all.
Any advice on how to sort this out would be grateful.
Hi banner12,
If I understand your post correctly, it is possible that you could have a worm on your pc. could you please download the FREE version of MalwareByte's anti-malware from Here, do an update and a full scan and let us know the results :-)
Matt
Hi
Thanks for the speedy replies.
I ran the malware checker which came back clear, so that's some good news.
I doublechecked my sent email and it seems although I got over 120 emails sent back to me as spam ( I think it didn't got past the other persons spam filter ? ) only a few where actually sent from my computer some of them are ..
Please dont click on them i havent a clue what or might do.
http://chiekop8039.977mb.com/ This was actually sent by my computer
These ones where at the bottom of what looks like a load of gobblely gook to me in the returned emails
http://susannaj5475.100gbfreehost.com/
http://nadenel4268.solidwebhost.com/
http://humphryr1260.977mb.com/
I have changed my password which has been suggested and I can't say I have noticed an increase in spam mails or any unusual activity before today.
'Let us know if you are using the web based mail system or an onboard email client' going have to admit I'm not sure what you mean by that or what the difference is.
Thanks again for the help so far.
Hi banner12,
Are you using a local email client, such as Outlook or Thunderbird, or do you check your email online using AOL's webmail? If the latter, it is likely that your account was compromised, allowing someone to use your account to send spam. Changing your password (and a few other things as explained in the link below) should remedy this issue, and your PC is probably not infected. On the other hand, if the suspicious emails are showing in the Sent folder of a local email client, then malware may be involved.
http://ask-leo.com/is_changing_my_password_enough.html
Hi
I only check my emails using AOLs homepage directly after signing in , or sometimes check them by using Mozilla Firefox to open AOL then signing in as usual.
So is it safer to check my emails using Firefox to open AOL or just go directly to AOL? . Or is there a problem with AOL itself ?
Sorry with all questions, just trying to understand how this has happened and what steps i can take to stop it happening again. Also making sure the computer is still safe to use.
Hi banner12,
I'm still not exactly clear on what happened, as it seems odd that out of 120 bounced emails only a few show in your sent box. If these were part of a spam deluge caused by a security breach I would think you would see hundreds of such sent messages. However, if your account was compromised it was likely done through a phishing attack where you may have been tricked into divulging your password. Or malware, such as a keylogger did get on your system and stole your password (in which case this issue will soon arise again when your new password is similarly pirated). So these things are possibilities to consider, but aside from the handful of odd sent messages you found, this really seems more like a case of someone spoofing your email address. How you access your email online really doesn't matter (I am assuming that you are not logging on in a public wifi cafe). Use a strong passphrase and always be suspicious of any unsolicited communication that asks for you to enter it in any online forms.
Hi
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions so far.
I was thinking I had been a victim of spoof emailing. However I decided to check my daughters laptop (it was my old laptop) and ran the malware checker on it and it flagged up something called WormP2P which I have deleted using the malware checker programme. Im still confused however how it got onto the computer as it always had Norton on it, a quick check on the web seems to show Worm P2P as a older virus/worm. Surely Norton would have picked it up.
Cheers
Hi
I seem to have a problem with the Malware scan, i did a quick scan which did show the Worm P2P. So thinking their might be more stuff hidden i have twice attemped the full scan which has resulted in the laptop crashing and restarting. The laptop uses vista