OT help please. Outlook Hijacked?

[Twioz]

have AdAware pro ver 6 but I still get messages occasionally that say unable to deliver message and it list like 6 email address that I have never heard of. This makes me suspect that Outlook has been hijacked but AdAware isnt finding anything, any ideas on how to find the culprit? BTW Nortons doesnt find jack either.

Reposted in this forum because all the Braniacs hang out in DC

Edited to ad machine specs
OS: Windows xp pro
Mail client: Outlook (not express)
Motherboard: A7V8X
CPU: Barton 2500
Having a newborn sleep through the night: Priceless

 

[RaySun2Be]

Some of the viruses out there spoof email addresses, and will use your email address as the FROM part of the email message. So when the email is sent out with a bad address, the "unable to deliver" message is sent to you, even though the email is probably not sent from your PC.

And if you have a firewall in place, and your anti-virus has checked out OK (to be sure, you could go to the TrendMicro website and do a free online scan), and ad-aware comes up clean, you are in all likelyhood OK, just the spoofed address scenario I mentioned above.

 

[GeoffS]

Is your Norton Anti-Virus up to date?

 

[Twioz]

Yes my nortons antivirus is up to date, and I did an online scan as well. I am really looking foward to the proposed legislation on spam and adware.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Twioz
Yes my nortons antivirus is up to date, and I did an online scan as well. I am really looking foward to the proposed legislation on spam and adware.

everyone accept for the spam (not as in canned ham) companies are.

 

[compudog]

Twioz, it's most likely what Ray said. Your addy is being spoofed and the messages are bounced back to you even though you were not the originator of the infected mail.

A few PCs at work were getting these bounced "undeliverables" and after checking the A/V, firewall and performing online scans (trend and Panda) determined the machines were clean and was result of spoofed addys.

Constant vigilance is all we can do to stay on top of the outbreaks.

 

[RustyNale]

To better make sure you could download and run Spybot , along with ad-aware it eliminates most of the spyware programs. Course, it sounds like Ray's "whacked" it right on the mark with his cane

 

[Twioz]

Ya, certainly sounds like the right answer to me. Wish there was a way to stop them from spreading me around as the psuedo sender of spam.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Twioz
Ya, certainly sounds like the right answer to me. Wish there was a way to stop them from spreading me around as the psuedo sender of spam.

Since I have had my E-mail address on the web for a few years now. lately have been getting almost sort of hate mails from people yelling at me for sending Virus infected E-mails. There are no Viruses here and never have been infected, it is a case of Spammers actually using the real address. There has to be a Crime for that.

 

[Orange Kid]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Twioz
Ya, certainly sounds like the right answer to me. Wish there was a way to stop them from spreading me around as the psuedo sender of spam.

Since I have had my E-mail address on the web for a few years now. lately have been getting almost sort of hate mails from people yelling at me for sending Virus infected E-mails. There are no Viruses here and never have been infected, it is a case of Spammers actually using the real address. There has to be a Crime for that.

Sounds to me like that would be identity theft, and using e-mail across state lines would fall into Federal territory.
As I am NOT a lawyer or any kind of law official, this is purely speculation on my part.

 

[Wiz]

Trouble is unless you can show a lot of monetary damages you can not get action on the part of law enforcement.
Been there, tried that.
Your address has been added to robots to send out spam and viruses can get your address from systems where they are resident to send themselves out as though they were you.
I've had some email addresses for 9 years - I have seen all this before.