Help! My computer is sending spam

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by downysoft, Jul 2, 2007.

  1. downysoft

    downysoft Private E-2

    Hi,
    I am very unknowledgeable about the intricate workings of PCs but I am fairly internet saavy. (I am a mainframe programmer so I am sort of a geek). However, my computer is sending spam and I cannot for the life of me get rid of it. I am currently running AVG but nothing picks it up. I know it is coming from my computer because of the headers. Plus, when my service was out one time, I saw that it was trying to send email when I had not written or sent any.
    I am on windows xp sp2. I use Thunderbird as my email software.

    thanks in advance for any help.

    Christy T. < swimming in server rejection emails in FL
     
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Welcome to Major Geeks!

    You cannot go by headers in emails. They can be spoofed to make like they are being sent from anyone. Even yourself. Sometimes spammers can just be spamming you and making it look like you are sending mail. If your problem happens frequently, a good test is to leave your PC off for a day or two. Make sure you note the time you turn it off and when turned back on. Now check the times that the spam email (if any is seen) were supposedly sent. If it coincides with the time frame your PC was off then you know for sure your PC did not send it.

    If you wish to check your PC for malware, we can do that (see below) but spam stuff like this is most often not really a malware problem on a PC. It is more frequently an incoming spam issue.


    Please follow our standard cleaning procedures which are necessary for us to provide you support. Also there are steps included for installing, renaming, running, and posting HijackThis logs as attachments.
    • Run ALL the steps in this Sticky thread READ & RUN ME FIRST Before Asking for Support
    • Make sure you check version numbers and get all updates.
    • Very Important: Make sure you tell us the results from running the tutorial...was anything found? Were you unable to complete any of the scans?...Were you unable to download any of the tools?...Did you do the on-line scans as suggested? etc.
    • After doing ALL of the above you still have a problem make sure you have booted to normal mode and run the steps in the below link to properly use HijackThis and attach a log:
    Make sure you also rename HijackThis.exe as suggested in the procedures. Use analyse.exe for the new name. This is very important due to some new infections going around.
    • When you return to make your next post, make sure you attach the following logs and that you have run these scans in the following order too:
      • CounterSpy - only for Windows XP, 2K, & NT users
      • AVG Antispyware log - ONLY IF NEEDED you were not able to run CounterSpy. - only for Windows XP, 2K, & NT users
      • Bitdefender - from step 6
      • Panda Scan - from step 6
      • runkeys.txt - the log from GetRunKey.bat
      • newfiles.txt - the log from ShowNew.bat
      • HijackThis
    NOTE: You can only attach 3 files in a single message so it will require that you use two messages to attach all of these logs!
     

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