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Is this a virus?.

G G Jean

Brummy Wench.
:(This has happened to me with regards to two subjects one being Viagra and the other an advert to working from home. These two subjects were sent from my e.mail address to people whose addresses I have put in my folder without my permission.:redface: I once opened one supposedly from my son with no title. When I opened it it was for Viagra. I looked into an advert on face book and when I opened it it said that it was fraudulent. Is this a virus and can I stop this happening?. It has bounced back a couple of times as a failed attempt. Your help would be most appreciated. I never open an e.mail now without a title even if I know who the sender is supposed to be.Thanks.:):) Jean.
 
Looks as if your email account has been infected. Run your anti virus and I would suggeest you run Trend Micro HomeCall. This is free and can be downloaded from www.computeractive.co.uk or CNET downloads. Or direct from Trend Micro.
 
Hi Jean,

The "From:" address on an email doesn't neceaarily contain the address of the sender. They could have obtained the addess from a host of places that your son has visited - there are robots going around all the time harvesting email addresses and there is very little you can really do about it. There are various anti-spam filters available and many people divert their emails via gmail in order to use their excellent filtering facilities.

At the end of the day, the tighter the filtering, the more likely you are to end up with a legitimate email dumped in the junk folder. In general I nearly always delete emails without a proper subject lines, but I am well aware that very occasionally a friend will scribble a quick note and forget the subject line. Tough!

Maurice :cool:
 
I use BT and very little gets through though some of the Phishers are getting quite good.
 
Bernie and Maurice thanks for that. My son has removed his addresses from the computer. He repairs for a living and it still happens to him. I will ask Pete to try your suggestions later. I have not a clue. I wonder why sometimes they are blocked then another time they get through to my e.mail friends?.
 
hi jean..what a pain it is isnt it....since my hotmail account was hijacked almost 2 years back and all my contacts were getting emails surposedly from me saying i was in africa and could they send me some money as i had lost my purse:rolleyes: i switched to safe-mail and so far touch wood ive not had a problem...

lyn
 
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As I have said I won't from know on open anything without a title even if it is from someone I know. Thanks Lyn.
 
I would agree with the posts above. If there's nothing else strange happening you're more likely to just be a victim of of a spammer rather than a virus. However, as a precaution it would be wise to run a scan with your own up to date virus program and, as suggested, Trend Housecall. It might also be worth getting (if you haven't already) Malware Bytes and running a scan with that. It can be got here: https://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html . Download, install, update, then run a full scan and remove anything it finds and reboot the PC.
 
:)Thanks for all your help everyone.:) I thought I might even have had a ghost in my computer?????.:skull: Jean.
 
Just had another thought; it might be worth changing your email password in case your account details have been hacked.
 
Hi Jean. For sure as Oisin said, if you are ever in any doubt about email, change your password. And maybe even your email account. I use Sky mail (because Sky is my ISP!) and Gmail, both of which (Sky now actually uses Gmail- otherwise known as Googlemail) have excellent built-in spam filters. I suggest checking your 'Spam' every week or so, in case something you want is seen as spam by your junk mail filter.

It probably is not a virus {BUT!!!} It is possible a backdoor Trojan has been installed on your machine (without your consent or knowledge) and this can easily forward your address book to servers for use in email spamming. So a thorough scan with your preferred anti-malware application is in order.

If you have any more problems, post back and we will help. And don't be afraid. I know from previous conversations with you, you worry about this sort of stuff- but with the right advice and a teeny bit of know-how we'll see you alright.
 
Thanks everyone for all your help. I listened in to Andrew Rowley on the Ed Doolan show and someone called in on this very subject. He too said that once you have opened one of these e.mails it can then be passed on to anyone in your address book without you doing a thing. It has not happened lately thank goodness. Jean.
 
Not had any trouble with BTYahoo.

I've had quite a few from Banks/Building Society's to update my accounts for sercurity reason's I never open any of them as I have only one Bank account and even have e-mails from them but their policy is they never send e-mails.
If you don't know it throw it.

Jean whats Viagra:D
 
You are naughty ALF!!!!!. :rolleyes: These were emails I opened from our twins that had no subject or title so I thought they must be OK?. I too just delete anything that says it is from a bank or people offering you money etc. Jean.
 
This may be a naive query, but I keep reading in posts about downloading various (free) items for scanning and removing viruses, shouldn't your existing anti virus package be doing this ? I have McFee (provided free by BT Broadband package 2), and I do not have any major problems. I get a fair amount of spam, two ticks and its deleted, no bother. Eric
 
If you already have an anti-virus product that should be fine.

In fact it is a bad idea to run more than one anti virus product as they can conflict with each other and slow your computer down.

However PC security is more than just anti virus and if you have a full internet security suite (like you seem to have) then that will check for other security problems like malware and spyware.

People who ONLY run anti virus products are leaving themselves wide open to an attack as probably malware and spyware are more of a threat nowadays than viruses.

Malwarebytes is a good free anti-malware product, however the free version only runs on-demand so will only find a problem AFTER it has hit your computer.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a mix of anti-virus and anti-malware so is a good free alternative. But only run it if you have no other PC security software installed (other anti-virus for example).

You CAN have Microsoft Security Essentials AND the free Malwarebytes on your PC at the same time as the Malwarebytes is only on-demand scanning.
 
guilbert53, as you can probably guess from my previous post I am not PC wise, even though I have had a PC for 8 or 9 years, terms like viruses, malware, spy ware, trojans etc... are just words to me, so I have to trust BT that the McFee package they have let me download is the 'bees knees' it includes something called Firewall (whatever that is) and it does regular 'quick scans'. Occassionally, about once a month I get it to do a Full Scan and as I have said I have had no problems, I also regularly do 'disc clean up' and 'defragmentise' my HD as I am advised it will prevent my PC from running slow, actually it runs remarkably quick according to a PC Engineer who recently upgraded my graphics card. Oh and I regularly delete History, Cookies etc via IE8 Tools and Internet options. A few months ago I subscribed to a magazine called Computeractive, speaks in plain language so that PC idiots like me can understand and have learnt quite a bit from them have even registered on line with them. The only problem I get on my PC is I may be doing something like uploading pics on to the Forum and the page will 'freeze' and a box comes on saying 'Internet Explore stopped working etc' and goes back to the beginning of the operation, this is only occassional but when it does happen it can happen 2 or 3 times on the trot ???? Eric
 
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