# Spam mail is being sent from my hotmail to my contacts



## kuruma84 (Sep 27, 2010)

I know a few people have had this problem in the past, but I have some additional information about the problem that may help to determine where it's coming from. And I'm hoping someone here could tell me what I'm looking for.


A few months ago, I noticed some "Failed to deliver" notices in my inbox sent to my contacts. It seems that all of those which failed to receive the mails are very old contacts of mine, probably not in use any more.
I ran various anti- programs such as Avast, Spybot - Seach & Destroy, Add-Aware, and Malware Bytes. But around a month later, I noticed the same problem.

However, the spam mails were pretty obvious, and none of my friends would fall for it Im sure, so I didn't care much about it.
But a few days ago, when trying to log into my hotmail account, before being able to login Hotmail prompted me to change my password on the spot. I checked a few times to see if the page was indeed Microsoft and not some phishing site, and it seems like it was the real deal. So I changed my password, but it was a weak change. I just added an extra character at the end of it.


So the problem I have appeared today. It's been around 5 days or so since I changed y password. I was logged in on MSN Messenger, and clicked the Inbx button to be taken to my Hotmail inbox. Instead I was taken to the login page of Live.com where it said "You have attempted to log in too many times with the wrong password."
This is strange because clicking my Inbox button on MSN Messenger was the first attempt to login all day. I was prompted to type in a security text (to prove I am human I suppose) but all of those attempts failed. I tried both my new and old password.


Since I got the notice from Hotmail that I've tried to log in with the wrong password too many times, I take it that whatever it was that was accessing my email before, tried to log in with the old password, but failed multiple times.
What I'm not sure about is if this thing tried to access my mail from my computer or not? I don't think I would get that notice from Hotmail if someone else was trying from a different computer, right?
Right now Hotmail has locked me out of my account for 24 hours. At leats I think it's 24 hours. What Im worried about is that if this thing keeps trying to access my email all the time, I'll always be locked out from my Hotmail. I'm even considering changing my password back to what it was before, just to avoid getting locked out, and letting this "thing" continue sending those spam mails till I can locate it and remove it.
I've heard of people being permanently locked out from their Hotmail accounts, I think after failing to answer the Secret question or something. I'm worried about that happening to me if this thing keeps trying to access my mail.

Another worry is that it might have guessed my new password, and changed it to somethign I dont know. Because when I was prompted to enter the security letters to sign in, it still failed about 5 times. But the reason Im doubting it managed to log in to my mail is because if it did, I don't think I would have gotten that warning about trying too many times.

Anyone know if this is a virus or something thats located on my computer?
And any recommendations about what to do?

Rigth now Im still logged in on my MSN, but I have confirmed that I cannot log in to my MSN again if I were to log out. (Tried using a different client to log in)
Im staying logged in in case I have to make a new email, to tell some people personally to add my new mail, or it might get troublesome to get them to add me as MSN is the only way I have to contact a few of them.

I hope this passes after 24 hours, but if this thing were to try and access my email again, it will probably happen again, and Im not sure how soon it would try again.


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## peterjhn (Nov 12, 2010)

Firstly scan your system completely and install a good firewall with antivirus software like kaspersky which provide internet security and protect the system from the attack of spywares and worms.


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