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Asking Advice for a Friend Who's E-mail Address is Hijacked


Lodewijk

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Hi!

I have a dear friend who just emailed me and other contacts of hers the following:

> Just to let everyone on my contact list know that someone has gotten

> a hold of this contact list and has been sending out emails that don't

> have anything to do with me. A couple of you have asked me about them

> already and this is how I found out what was going on. I don't know how

> to fix this problem yet but as soon as I find out I will try to stop

> them from being sent. Until that time please don't open anything that

> looks like it is not something that I would send; without a subject, or

> without any text for example. I have been told that viruses sometimes

> spread this way. So far it doesn't look like any harm has been done,

> thank goodness, but I apologize for any inconvenience any of you may

> have had, wondering if I had gone crazy, or whatever.

>

> Sincerely,

> Mary Ann

AV scanners had found malware on her laptop, and she had it removed. Then she set up another email address -still untouched- since the above began already some time ago.

Any advice, anyone?

PS:

Oops, I just noticed that I posted this in the SpamCop System and Account issues section. :blush:

If required, may be moved to the appropriate one of course... :)

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Hi!

I have a dear friend who just emailed me and other contacts of hers the following:

AV scanners had found malware on her laptop, and she had it removed. Then she set up another email address -still untouched- since the above began already some time ago.

Any advice, anyone?

Best check for "spyware" is done by windows program "Search & Destroy"

Best advice to anyone getting further emails from her old address is to report them through SpamCop the ISP sending the spam usually kill's it's source.

Remember this is now AFTER event and would not of happened if precautions were set-up before hand (read my sig)

If one has the time they can get better than SpamCop killing websites reporting those in breach of Law to authorities making a spammers life of crime a hard one.

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There is nothing to be done but ride it out and hope the spammer starts forging someone else's address soon.

If the account has truly been hijacked, which I doubt, she should change the password immediately and maybe even delete the account.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

- service[at]admin.spamcop.net -

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Thank you both.

It's a yahoo account, and she can still use it. So I just looked around a bit and found this:

"What to do if your account is sending spam."

http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_G...&id=SLN3417

So in her case as an extra security measure this applies, as already suggested:

"If spam messages are being sent to your contacts, the first step to securing your account is to reset your password."

I don't know if I got spam through her old misused email account -never checked- but I wonder if a possible second step might be me reporting a legitimate email from her that she send me from that account to SpamCop. Maybe adding a message that the account holder is not sending the spam, but someone else is using her email address, and she would like that particular email account to be terminated or blocked.

(PS: Come to think of it, the latter might complicate things unnecessarily for her, as the spammer most probably copied my email address also from her laptop -if that is what happened- so me reporting all spam to SpamCop -as I do- is enough.)

I also found this:

"How to Delete Your Yahoo! Mail Account.":

http://email.about.com/od/yahoomailtip1/qt...ail_Account.htm

Spammers could still use it for 90 days after she would delete it it looks like. But no longer after that period. I wonder if deleting that old one would also delete her new one... in other words, whether it is a package deal.

I have no experience with this. Again, any advice would be appreciated.

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Thank you both.

It's a yahoo account,

Spammers could still use it for 90 days after she would delete it it looks like. But no longer after that period. I wonder if deleting that old one would also delete her new one... in other words, whether it is a package deal.

I have no experience with this. Again, any advice would be appreciated.

I don't believe or see evidence Yahoo gives a toss?

Would be over 90% flooding my Hotmail account comes through/via yahoo email.

Probably hacked accounts (kids replying to "update" passwords?)

As it's mainly porn I report child porn (under 18 is child porn) to where their website is and to authorities

This program helps identify the end website (Good spam tool)

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ip_country_info_offline.html

You can paste entire email headers into it (or just singularly) and it will identify IP's and websites

Your best defense against spammers is attack

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My friend just send me this:

"Yesterday I changed my password for both of my Yahoo email addresses. I will ask the people that got the spam if it has stopped. One thing that I noticed when I reset the password was that I immediately got a request through Yahoo Messenger from an email address that my daughter's husband has. It was flashing in the box at the bottom of the screen, and also in the top line of the windows that I had open to get my attention. When I saw that I asked her if she was still using it and she said no. So her husband may have done something, but she said it had been a long time since she had used it. It was on the contact list of my new xxx email address, as was my old xxx address one of the contacts on that list. I had never before had that Messenger request pop up from him or her, until I was in the process of changing the password. That was just too much of a coincidence for me to dismiss as meaningless. I know that years ago I had been trying out Yahoo Messenger and Randy and I did have a brief conversation via it, but it was only that once, and I have never used it since."

I don't know what to make of this, but I would almost suggest she terminate both yahoo email accounts, and make a whole new one...

Would that make sense? Or am I exaggerating?

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I don't know what to make of this, but I would almost suggest she terminate both yahoo email accounts, and make a whole new one...

Would that make sense? Or am I exaggerating?

Seems the too hard basket to handle via third person.

The lesson for friend IMO is to start again (naive user)

Get a Gmail account (don't use main email address as 1st contact)

Store passwords on a USB drive (back those encrypted passwords up store them in "DropBox")

Use a good "Virus" detector like "security essentials"

Windows 7 has an adequate firewall, before versions use one like "Zone Alarm"

once a week run "Search & Destroy"

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