An Awful Hotmail Thing Has Happened To Me!

[Mrs Coach]

Before my very eyes (and I didnt' open any emails or websites or stuff) my hotmail account started sending the following to everyone in my address book, with the title 'hi'

hello friend,

how are you doing recently?i came across a online website,and had a nice talking with the sales manager,then i bought a few items from them,i feel very satisfied with their service,besides,she said when you buy from them and give my name,they will give you discount.

you can have a look when you have time.www.easybuyshopcn.com

the sales manager is Tracy,you can contact with her directly by email. easybuyshopcn@yahoo.cn

Best Regards.

NSC USERS :
PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THE ADDRESS OR EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE JUST IN CASE!

It then deleted three months of emails from all my folders, and then deleted my entire address book!!

I've run three virus checks on my computer and deleted all the cookies, temp internet files. No virus's revealed. Does this mean someone hacked my password on hotmail and did the above? Is there anything I can do about it??

 

[Mrs Coach]

She'd get a free smack in the chops if I was to ever meet her, or the dirty little hacker who cant speak gooder english!

 

[Bars Mar]

Madam. You Have More Than Likely Got A Trojan Virus On Your PC. Your Hotmail Account Is (Probably) Safe But Change The Password Anyway And Scan Your PC.

Don't Panic. It's (Probably) Not Done Any Harm.

 

[Mrs Coach]

Cheers Bars, but it's deleted every email address I had! Can I get them back in any way?!

 

[Mendoza]

Bloody Hell - BARS MAR being nice

can we make this thread a STICKY

Thanks for the warning to Paula

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I had a similar thing recently, i got a message to do with buying a property in my home town from a website.

I spoke to the police about the message i got and how it referred to buying property in my town, and told not to worry, change your password as any fraudsters are only after bank account details etc Just be careful what info you give out online.

Dont open e-mails like it or ever reply, often it is a e-mail trying to find out if that address is active and by clicking it or replying they know its in use and spam it.
If your interested in what they are selling, do a google search and find what is definitely the legit website, not an imitation.

 

[Bars Mar]

Bloody Hell - BARS MAR being nice

can we make this thread a STICKY

Thanks for the warning to Paula

Some Things In Life Are Sacred. You Don't Change A Marmite Jar Design, You Don't Remake Smokey And The Bandit And You Definitely Don't Swear At Mrs Coach.

 

[gullshark]

Change your password pronto

 

[NMH]

Cheers Bars, but it's deleted every email address I had! Can I get them back in any way?!

Wait until everyone who you had contact with, emails you.

If they never do again, they weren't worth you knowing, so fuckem.

 

[MORTY]

Switch it off, then back on again

 

[The Great Cornholio]

He may be being nice but is also wrong. IF your machine has a trojan horse or some kind of keylogger then you DO need to worry. An awful lot of malware these days is resistant to anti spyware/malware/virus checkers and will not be removed easily. It may just be that your hotmail account is all that has been compromised in which case changing the password will probably solve your immediate problems. But if you use your PC for any kind of financial transactions, my advice would be to completely reinstall your machine and change all sensitive online passwords, just in case you do have a keylogger. Sledgehammer to crack a nut maybe but more and more malware runs as a root kit which is virtually undetectable or attaches itself to system files which means that it can't be removed without killing the operating system.

I certainly wouldn't recommend an instant wiping of your machine and headless chicken panic mode. But far too many people are quick to dismiss viruses and malware as fixed because they have run Adaware. The first thing I would recommend is to run Hitman Pro from here :-

Hitman Pro | Alles-in-1 oplossing tegen spyware - Home

This will download and run several spyware checkers one after the other. If none of them find a major threat then you may well be OK. Change all of your online passwords and proceed with care. If they do find a major threat then Google it to see how harmful it is.

It is also worth thinking about how the machine is/has been used. Do you use Internet Explorer? Do the kids use Limewire, Bear Share or the like? Are you/your kids internet savvy enough not to click on pop ups/dodge emails? If the answer to either of the first two is yes or the last one is no then a virus/malware is a distinct possibility. Use Firefox, don't use file sharing sites and don't click on anything even slightly dodgy. This won't make you immune but will cut down the chances of getting hacked.

Ideally, find someone who knows what they are doing to give your machine the once over. Contact Hotmail to find out if it is possible that your account has been hacked remotely. Think about your password - is it VERY easily guessed from your email address?

I don't mean to put the fear of God into you but also don't want you to dismiss it by just changing your Hotmail password and thinking everything is OK. It may well be OK. Or you may have something really nasty on your machine. I'm concerned when you said you saw these emails being sent "before your eyes". This may mean that someone has remote control of your PC which would be very bad indeed. Do you use Outlook Express or similar to get your emails or do you just go to the Hotmail website and logon? I'm guessing the latter as free accounts don't have POP capabilities meaning you have to go to the website. Does this mean that the browser opened itself and started sending emails? If so, that sounds like more than a compromised Hotmail account.

 

[Hiney]

He may be being nice but is also wrong. IF your machine has a trojan horse or some kind of keylogger then you DO need to worry. An awful lot of malware these days is resistant to anti spyware/malware/virus checkers and will not be removed easily. It may just be that your hotmail account is all that has been compromised in which case changing the password will probably solve your immediate problems. But if you use your PC for any kind of financial transactions, my advice would be to completely reinstall your machine and change all sensitive online passwords, just in case you do have a keylogger. Sledgehammer to crack a nut maybe but more and more malware runs as a root kit which is virtually undetectable or attaches itself to system files which means that it can't be removed without killing the operating system.

I certainly wouldn't recommend an instant wiping of your machine and headless chicken panic mode. But far too many people are quick to dismiss viruses and malware as fixed because they have run Adaware. The first thing I would recommend is to run Hitman Pro from here :-

Hitman Pro | Alles-in-1 oplossing tegen spyware - Home

This will download and run several spyware checkers one after the other. If none of them find a major threat then you may well be OK. Change all of your online passwords and proceed with care. If they do find a major threat then Google it to see how harmful it is.

It is also worth thinking about how the machine is/has been used. Do you use Internet Explorer? Do the kids use Limewire, Bear Share or the like? Are you/your kids internet savvy enough not to click on pop ups/dodge emails? If the answer to either of the first two is yes or the last one is no then a virus/malware is a distinct possibility. Use Firefox, don't use file sharing sites and don't click on anything even slightly dodgy. This won't make you immune but will cut down the chances of getting hacked.

Ideally, find someone who knows what they are doing to give your machine the once over. Contact Hotmail to find out if it is possible that your account has been hacked remotely. Think about your password - is it VERY easily guessed from your email address?

I don't mean to put the fear of God into you but also don't want you to dismiss it by just changing your Hotmail password and thinking everything is OK. It may well be OK. Or you may have something really nasty on your machine. I'm concerned when you said you saw these emails being sent "before your eyes". This may mean that someone has remote control of your PC which would be very bad indeed. Do you use Outlook Express or similar to get your emails or do you just go to the Hotmail website and logon? I'm guessing the latter as free accounts don't have POP capabilities meaning you have to go to the website. Does this mean that the browser opened itself and started sending emails? If so, that sounds like more than a compromised Hotmail account.

Wise words

 

[Mrs Coach]

The great cornholio, many thanks for your advice.
I go to the hotmail website, and there's no sign of a virus or trojan on my computer itself, it's just attacked my hotmail account.
I've suddenly realised that Princess Coach has been taking a memory stick to and from secondary school with her homework/i-study on, then bringing it back and plugging it into the laptop to carry on working. I BETCHA that's what's done it. That's the end of her good grades then! She can stay at school and finish her work!!!

 

[The Great Cornholio]

The great cornholio, many thanks for your advice.
I go to the hotmail website, and there's no sign of a virus or trojan on my computer itself, it's just attacked my hotmail account.
I've suddenly realised that Princess Coach has been taking a memory stick to and from secondary school with her homework/i-study on, then bringing it back and plugging it into the laptop to carry on working. I BETCHA that's what's done it. That's the end of her good grades then! She can stay at school and finish her work!!!

But what about the "before my very eyes" bit? Did Internet Explorer launch itself and you saw these emails being sent? Or did you just log into Hotmail and see that the emails have been sent? The former is bad, the latter not so bad.

 

[Mrs Coach]

No, it didn't launch itself. I happened to open my hotmail as it was sending the emails - I saw it was happening because 'undeliverable' messages started pinging into my inbox from addresses it was using in my contacts box which no longer exist, and I was yelling 'what on earth is going on'??!! lol!

 

[ack]

Run more than 1 virus/trojan scanner. Its a sad fact that 1 may miss something that another may pickup.
Afraid kids and their music downloads are prime hits at the mo for trojans etc,if not from pay sites. And mem sticks and friends sharing just spread it faster.
But end of the day ye got something not clean

 

[ridda]

Run spyware catcher this will find the little bugger.
[And yes you do have a trojan on your computer that has hijacked your email.]
Spyware catcher will find it but will not delete it unless you buy it, but at least you will know the name of the trojan then you can look for a fix.