Rob said:
Please help.
Suddenly, MS Outlook is sending unauthorized spam. I am
running Win2000, SP4.
I found this problem by receiving email errors, saying
that my message could not be delivered. But I did not
knowingly send any message. These messages are going to
people NOT in my address book.
It looks like something has hijacked my email.
How do I get rid of this?
Most of these things aren't actually very clever and a bit of detective
work can cure it. I had one and noticed what it was trying to do - sending
emails - and as I was on dial-up just disconnected. Then I deleted the
emails it had placed ready to send in my outbox and searched Drive C for
files which had been modified that day (in your case this would be the day
you noticed the problem) and eventually by ignoring anything which had been
done by the system or applications, I found a nasty little file in my
Windows\Temp directory. It was a year or two back so I can't remember what
it was called. Try that. You might have to look at your registry nowadays
as the writers get cleverer, not that there's anything clever about
exploiting other peoples' mistakes (e.g. security loopholes) but I guess it
keeps them off the streets...
The first thing you should do is not click on any attachment that you
aren't expecting. Of course, these things usually work by sending
themselves to every address they find in your address book so they will
appear to come from somebody you know. Still, once bitten, twice shy.
Don't click on ANY attachment, even if it's from someone you know, unless
you are expecting it. If you're not expecting it, then send an email to
whoever sent it asking what it is and pointing out to them that if they
didn't knowingly send it they should run a virus checker before using their
email again.
Having said that, my virus checkers have never actually found one in 7
or 8 years of using them. I prefer to use common sense on the net and -
more recently - a nice little program called "Black Ice Defender" to keep
intruders out. It's not as easy now that the net is crowded so you probably
should have some protection.
Keep to simple rules such as ALWAYS deleting without reading every email
from somebody you don't know and are suspicious of. There are plenty of
tools out there to help you and you should ask your ISP for help if you're
on dial-up. At home on dial-up, I use Mailwasher for vetting and deleting
mail in my accounts before I download them which actually is a big advantage
over networks I think.
This might not be much help but it sounds as though there's probably no
real harm done if it's one of those schoolboyish email scripts. Oh one
thing, don't compound the problem by sending an apology and get it fixed
before you send any more mail!
Cheers
David
