Virus on computer sent out email to everyone on my contacts list

i am new to this. But am so annoyed and embrassed as my wrteched computer has got a virus. Its even got Norton on it but I am on the point of throwing the whole thing out the window !! Everyone on my contacts list has been contacted. About me buying an Iphone. I am not even interested in buying an iphone cant afford one. With xmas. Ok I have windows Xp and Norton and do updates each week. So how can I stop these people from getting into my life? please please help me thanks amandah

 

[edit: Clarified subject]

Message Edited by shannons on 11-20-2009 01:30 PM

Please tell us what "norton" you have -- NIS NAV N360 and what year / Version ID? The Version ID is under Help / About and is in the format nn.nn.nn.nnn

 

Please say which XP including Service Packs.

 

I've asked a moderator to move your message since it is in the wrong Forum -- Forum Feedback is for questions or comments about the Forums themselves.

 

After your message is moved you will find a message where you posted it with a link to it's new location -- probably there by now!

Hi

 

It probably can't be moved yet until the OP gets back to us with the Norton product involved.

Hi amandah,

 

Are you using an email client on your PC, such as Outlook Express, or do you use a web-based email service like Gmail?  Have you confirmed that your computer is infected with a virus?  

Hi Thank-you fro your message. I am using outlook express Each Sunday I run Norton antivirus. Its so embrassing to me as someone out there has hacked into this computer and has sent emails to all my contacts on my list through Hotmail.Is it better to change maybe my hotmail address and password? I am at a loss with how exactly to get round this problem, also I cant afford to spend heaps of money. Calling someone out. Each time I do a norton check I always have various cookies that come up . Regards amandah

You must be running an old version of the product if it updates weekly.

You should provide more information in order to get help or contact Symantec Technical support and have a technician help you remotely.

 

You can contact Symantec from Help&Support > Get support (in your Norton product)

Hi amanda

 

A few weeks ago, there was a reported problem with Hotmail accounts getting compromised.It wasn't just Hotmail accounts either. It included Live.com and MSN.com also I believe. At that time, it was suggested on the Hotmail site that user's of Hotmail should change their passwords. More about this can probably still be found on the Hotmail Help site.


amandah wrote:
Hi Thank-you fro your message. I am using outlook express Each Sunday I run Norton antivirus. Its so embrassing to me as someone out there has hacked into this computer and has sent emails to all my contacts on my list through Hotmail.Is it better to change maybe my hotmail address and password? I am at a loss with how exactly to get round this problem, also I cant afford to spend heaps of money. Calling someone out. Each time I do a norton check I always have various cookies that come up . Regards amandah

The quality of our help, Amandah, depends on the quality of the information you provide us.  Already you have been asked a number of questions that we don't have answers to yet.

 

Some background to help you understand what has happened:

If you are right about your address book being used, then you probably got a specific kind of malware that hijacks your mail program.  This infection uses a given number of names (sometimes 10, sometimes 50) and emails them some kind of mail designed to get their attention and convince them to open an attachment or connect on a link that will in turn get them infected in the same way.

 

Embarrassing as it is, changing your email address makes no difference, because the infection is already there in your computer.  Worse, changing your email address may mean you lose some valuable contacts.  At this point you need to:

1) clean up your computer and/or

2) change your email account password in case they have gotten into your account instead of your computer.

3) email those contacts of yours who got the infected email and explain what happened and apologize; and

4) tell them what they need to do if they caught the infection.

 

So to get this started, we volunteers here need some good information from you.

 

1) how do you know this happened?  There are other forms of malware out there that don't touch your computer.  Instead, they make up millions of email addresses, hoping to hit ones that actually exist, then send out email under that false name (using something we call "counterfeit headers").  To all appearances, the email appears to come from you.  The way you tell the difference is that the recipients of counterfeit headers could be anyone, in your address book or not; whereas the recipients of an Outlook Hijacker for instance would be only or predominantly those people who are in your address book.

 

2)  I doubt if your version of Outlook makes any difference, but it might to some of our crew; so tell us if it is Outlook Express 6 or 7 or whatever; or if it's MS Office Outlook 2002 or 2003 or 2007 or ...

 

3)  What security product do you have on your computer.  This is helpful to us, because we need to know how this malware slipped through the cracks.  Do you have NAV or NIS or 360 (Norton Antivirus or Norton Internet Security or Norton 360)?  What is its version number?  Open up the main screen of the product, then click on Help&Support, then click on About.  Copy the version number shown and tell us what it is.

 

4)  We need to know if your signature files on up-to-date.  These are the first line of defense in recognizing and blocking malware.  This will be actually told to you in the main screen of NAV or NIS.  Your LIVE UPDATES should never be more than 10 or 15 minutes old.

 

5)  We need to know if you are getting any warnings on your own computer at all.  What is the current behavior.

 

There are going to be a number of suggestions coming at you real fast.  Some will tell you download malwarebytes, others might mention hijackthis.  Please follow the links and instructions provided for both because it will help move things along.

 

At the moment, your job is to get us the information we need.  Hope to see you posting back here soon.

Message Edited by mijcar on 11-21-2009 08:50 AM

Hi amandah,

 

I think floplot is on the right track here as the issue you are having is very commonly associated with a compromised email account (which is why I asked about your email setup).  Please do change your Hotmail account password and see if that solves the problem for you.

 

You can read about the incident that floplot was referring to here:

 

 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/10/phished_hotmail_gmail_yahoo_ac.html

Message Edited by SendOfJive on 11-21-2009 09:44 AM

SendOfJive wrote:

Hi amandah,

 

I think floplot is on the right track here as the issue you are having is very commonly associated with a compromised email account (which is why I asked about your email setup).  Please do change your Hotmail account password and see if that solves the problem for you.

 

You can read about the incident that floplot was referring to here:

 

 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/10/phished_hotmail_gmail_yahoo_ac.html

Message Edited by SendOfJive on 11-21-2009 09:44 AM

Unfortunately, we don't have enough information from the poster to persist on a single-track.

 

If her email account was penetrated online, that is one kind of problem; and changing her password to a secure one will fix it immediately.

 

But if her computer mail handler (outlook, etc) has been hijacked, that is a different kind of problem.  Yes, the hotmail issue was in the newsvery recently; but that doesn't change the fact that computer penetrations are happening constantly.


3GUSER wrote:

You must be running an old version of the product if it updates weekly.

You should provide more information in order to get help or contact Symantec Technical support and have a technician help you remotely.

 

You can contact Symantec from Help&Support > Get support (in your Norton product)


I think this may be a vital point.

 

Weekly updates are part of software two years old or more.  Search engines and malware detection procedures have changed immensely.

 

Once this issue is cleared up, the poster should visit Norton Update/Upgrade Center and see if she qualifies for a free upgrade to a current product.

Hi

 

Here I think is the relevent information. The OP hasn't provided very much information about her problem, but she did mention one fact which I think is important here. She mentioned all her contacts have been getting emails about iphones and that she does use Hotmail. I have just Googled about this problem.  Granted, we don't know for sure just what is happening with her computer and if perhaps another malware problem is happening also. This may not be the sole cause of the problem as mij has pointed out, but it does seem to have had many people contact Hotmail about this problem. I just saw a ton of topics listed in Google about how Hotmail and the other email programs like Live.com etc have been compromised and most of them have been used to send out these emails about the iphones. There are some references listed even from the Windows live hotmail help site also listed. It seems to have stemmed from what I had mentioned in my other post. Until we have further information from the OP, I think it may be a starting point for investigation since we don't have much other information to work with.