Computer help!!PLEASE!!!!

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OKLAHOMAN

OKLAHOMAN

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Seems my wife's e-mail has been hacked and now people on her contact list are receiving e-mails from her with links to who knows as hopefully no one has opened them YET.. I've emailed all who recived them not to open. We found this out when yesterday she opened her email to see that the mail :devil: had sent her a notice that it could not deliver 2 of her e-mails.

How do we change her e-mail address and make her old e-mai inactive? And would this new e-mail be safe?
 
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Roy, I'd guess you have gotten a Trojan virus that has copied and sent itself out using her address book as a path. run an in depth scan. it would be reasonable to change your pass words too for the email just in case.


OKLAHOMAN said:
Seems my wife's e-mail has been hacked and now people on her contact list are receiving e-mails from her with links to who knows as hopefully no one has opened them YET.. I've emailed all who recived them not to open. We found this out when yesterday she opened her email to see that the mail :devil: had sent her a notice that it could not deliver 2 of her e-mails.

How do we change her e-mail address and make her old e-mai inactive? And would this new e-mail be safe?
Click to expand...
 
It may not be that her email was hacked, but that the computer has a "virus" that is linked into the email program and sends out the emails from her computer. If you have virus software, make sure the signatures are up to date and do a full scan (it will take a while). I would do this as a first step.
 
Roy:
If you are using Microsoft Outlook, or Microsoft Outlook ?Express, open that program. Go to the top of the page, and find the "tools" tab. Open tools, then go to accounts. Find your wife's account. Then copy the settings onto a piece of paper. IMMEDIATELY after writing down the user name, server addresses and all of the important information related to that account, DELETE OR REMOVE THE ACCOUNT.

Then update your virus protection software (this is likely a Trojan Horse virus) and then run a complete virus scan on the computer. When the anit-virus software finds the offending bug, either delete it or quarantine it.

If you need help, PM me and we'll handle this by telephone.

Good luck!
 
it could ALSO be that someone on her LIST has received a virus which has picked a random person on it's local contact list to send mail as. Again, same steps to remedy, just needs to be done on all friends computers too which sounds like is already happening.
 
try downloading a program called spybot or buy one called kaspersky. Then run them to find the virus.

I while back I remember something about a virus designed to do just what you describe. She could have gotten it from someone else or it could have started with her. It supposedly just keeps snowballing everytime someone new opens an email it sent it begins doing it with their email program as well. Be careful, in that you could get it off her machine only to have her receive it again if one of her contacts is infected.
 
Roy
You may have what call malware that some antivirus software won't catch There is a program called Malwarebyt at malwarebytes.org there is a free version and one you can buy download and run a full scan the free one works
 
arioux said:
Packrat said:
Roy
You may have what call malware that some antivirus software won't catch There is a program called Malwarebyt at malwarebytes.org there is a free version and one you can buy download and run a full scan the free one works
Click to expand...

Ditto on malwarebytes.
Click to expand...

Me three on Malwarebytes. If you are infected really bad it will not let you run Malwarebytes though.
 
aggromere said:
try downloading a program called spybot or buy one called kaspersky. Then run them to find the virus.
Click to expand...

If you already have antivirus software you do not need kaspersky. In fact having to antivirus software products installed can cause you even more problems.

The Malware app you can download and run with your antivirus software. I highly recommend it.

If you have any issues running the Malware app, you can boot into safe mode and then run it. When it finishes doing its thing, then reboot as normal.

Hope all that didn't confuse you.
 
Another option is to do a system restore back to a previous day. Not sure how successful it would be in your case but last time I picked a virus I set my computer back a week and the virus was removed. I also use Spybot S&D, Malwarebites, and CCleaner. If you are intent on really doing away with the email account, there should be information under Help, Settings, or Support on how to delete it. Good luck.
 
Roy; You should also make sure to run the Windows Update application and verify that your system has all patches applied.

If she is using Microsoft Outlook / Express, switch to a different email program like Mozilla Thunderbird. It doesn't allow viruses / malware to take hold.
 
OKLAHOMAN said:
Seems my wife's e-mail has been hacked and now people on her contact list are receiving e-mails from her with links to who knows as hopefully no one has opened them YET.. I've emailed all who recived them not to open. We found this out when yesterday she opened her email to see that the mail :devil: had sent her a notice that it could not deliver 2 of her e-mails.

How do we change her e-mail address and make her old e-mai inactive? And would this new e-mail be safe?
Click to expand...


Changing your email address is more than likely overkill. If someone 'hacked' your email first thing they would of done is change your password. You more than likely picked up a simple virus. You could however change your email password just to be safe. You should change your PW's every 6 months or so.

If you want to log and encrypt your passwords or generate good ones you can use a program called LastPass. Nice program & it's free.

What I would do is download to fix your current issue:

AVG Free edition (make sure no other anti-virus program is installed) Never have two separate anti-virus programs running. It will cause issues.

SpyBot - Decent program looks more for 'malware' which these days people have grouped every little thing into this category.

If you don't like avg or just would like another option you could download Microsoft Security Essentials. It's pretty good. I found it to be a little bit of a resource hog so I don't personally use it but that's because I do a lot of development on my computer and I need every bit of resource for that.


The top two should easily find your issue and repair it.
 
Thanks all, we changed her password, ran a complete scan,said she had a Trojan horse. So we shot it to put it out of our misery.........
 
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