AOL Account Hacked, Friends SPAMMED

KimCaroline · Feb 13, 2010

Hi,

Former AOL employee here (left happily almost 10 years ago). This is why I even bother with AOL: history.

Last December a hacker hacked into my AOL Address Book and spammed all of my contacts using my name and AOL acccounts. He probably used trojans in the spam advertising Korean electronics. My smarter friends picked up on the suspicious email; others weren't so lucky. People look at me funny now.

I thought it was over until he/she spammed my friends, family and colleagues again in January, and once recently. He's able to change my AOL security question and passwords. (I have heavy-duty G-Data anti-virus software and am working from a brand new HD, so he/she/it is committing this crime someone in Rome).

HELP!!!

For all those readers who haven't been a victim of identy theft, consider yourself lucky and be careful. This has taken way too much of my time, and hurt my reputation. I know, I should cancel AOL and forget about it...

Thanks for any help--

KKG

dr.moriarty · Feb 14, 2010

Welcome to Major Geeks, KimCaroline!

Please read ALL of this message including the notes before doing anything.

Please follow the instructions in the below link:

READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide

and attach the requested logs when you finish these instructions.

**** If something does not run, write down the info to explain to us later but keep on going. ****

Do not assume that because one step does not work that they all will not. MGtools will frequently run even when all other tools will not.

After completing the READ & RUN ME and attaching your logs, make sure that you tell us what problems still remain ( if any still do )!

Helpful Notes:

If you run into problems trying to run the READ & RUN ME or any of the scans in normal boot mode, you can run the steps in safe boot mode but make sure you tell us what you did later when you post logs. See the below if you do not know how to boot in safe mode:

[*]Starting your computer in Safe mode

If you have problems downloading on the problem PC, download the tools and the manual updates for SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes ( links are given in the READ & RUN ME) onto another PC and then burn to a CD. Then copy them to the problem PC. You will have to skip getting updates if (and only if) your internet connection does not work. Yes you could use a flash drive too but flash drives are writeable and infections can spread to them.

If you cannot seem to login to an infected user account, try using a different user account (if you have one) in either normal or safe boot mode and running only SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes while logged into this other user account. Then reboot and see if you can log into the problem user account. If you can then run SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, ComboFix and MGtools on the infected account as requested in the instructions.

To avoid additional delay in getting a response, it is strongly advised that after completing the READ & RUN ME you also read this sticky:

Don't Bump! It Only Hurts You!!!

Any additional post is a bump which will add more delay. Once you attach the logs, your thread will be in the work queue and as stated our system works the oldest threads FIRST.

Log in or Sign up

AOL Account Hacked, Friends SPAMMED

KimCaroline Private E-2

dr.moriarty Malware Super Sleuth Staff Member