Spam e-mail sent to all my contacts?

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:38 am

This morning I became aware that somehow a spam e-mail was sent to all my contacts from my email account. I have changed my password but now they have my contact list. Is there anything I need or should do about this?

Post by **spot** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:17 am

I'm not sure which password you've changed. If you have any for your ISP those all need changing, if you have any for Yahoo those all need changing, you might like to run Malwarebytes to clean anything off your own PC first (because if there were any malware on your PC, your new passwords would then be exported like the old ones). If malwarebytes gives a list of stuff it's cleaned you might post that list into the thread so we can check it.

The person who posted the spam using your email address and contact details is in Thailand, posting through Yahoo Singapore. He links to a CNBC-looking scam host located in the Russian Federation which "recommends", in a pretend-news-article, a French-hosted steal-your-money scam masquerading as a US-based work-at-home scheme:Working online has been a financial windfall for Jamie, who struggled for months to find a job in a struggling economy through many online job agencies such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Snagajob.com. Her big break came one day when she found the Income Institute Connect System in an online classified ad. "I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in those "get rich quick" scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff where you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The Income Institute Connect System provided that for me.

The problem is that your contact list and your email address are now on their system and they can re-use it any time without needing a password of yours to steal it with. Whether they'll bother or not is a different matter, they have millions of them already and they tend to be more useful when fresh. If you do warn everyone on your list use "BCC" instead of "To" to blind-copy them, or you'll be handing a copy of your entire contact list to everyone on it. The total solution is to get a new email address and warn everyone on your list to permanently block your old address, but even though that's correct it's also extreme and time-consuming.

It could be worse, it's only the computer.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:32 am

spot;1398844 wrote: I'm not sure which password you've changed. If you have any for your ISP those all need changing, if you have any for Yahoo those all need changing, you might like to run Malwarebytes to clean anything off your own PC first (because if there were any malware on your PC, your new passwords would then be exported like the old ones). If malwarebytes gives a list of stuff it's cleaned you might post that list into the thread so we can check it.

The person who posted the spam using your email address and contact details is in Thailand, posting through Yahoo Singapore. He links to a CNBC-looking scam host located in the Russian Federation which "recommends", in a pretend-news-article, a French-hosted steal-your-money scam masquerading as a US-based work-at-home scheme:Working online has been a financial windfall for Jamie, who struggled for months to find a job in a struggling economy through many online job agencies such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Snagajob.com. Her big break came one day when she found the Income Institute Connect System in an online classified ad. "I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in those "get rich quick" scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff where you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The Income Institute Connect System provided that for me.

The problem is that your contact list and your email address are now on their system and they can re-use it any time without needing a password of yours to steal it with. Whether they'll bother or not is a different matter, they have millions of them already and they tend to be more useful when fresh. If you do warn everyone on your list use "BCC" instead of "To" to blind-copy them, or you'll be handing a copy of your entire contact list to everyone on it. The total solution is to get a new email address and warn everyone on your list to permanently block your old address, but even though that's correct it's also extreme and time-consuming.

It could be worse, it's only the computer.

Wow. I will run the malwarebytes and see what happens.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:23 am

This is what I got.

[graphic deleted on request]

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:25 am

I'm assuming I should go ahead and remove them?

Post by **spot** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:44 am

YZGI;1398854 wrote: I'm assuming I should go ahead and remove them?

Oh yes, I think you ought.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:14 pm

spot;1398855 wrote: Oh yes, I think you ought.

Done, comp restarted, hopefully this will take care of future stuff. I thought my avast would catch things like this?

Post by **spot** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:25 pm

It depends on how it arrives perhaps. But yes, in general I'd have expected any virus checker to have prevented it from arriving in the first place. It's far too big a playground for anyone to reasonably feel their computer is entirely under control though. Reasonably, expect it not to be for at least some of the time.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:28 pm

spot;1398862 wrote: It depends on how it arrives perhaps. But yes, in general I'd have expected any virus checker to have prevented it from arriving in the first place. It's far too big a playground for anyone to reasonably feel their computer is entirely under control though. Reasonably, expect it not to be for at least some of the time.

Thanks, I'll have to be more diligent in my scans.

Post by **spot** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:34 pm

Getting a monthly second opinion from a tool like malwarebytes is good housekeeping. I keep my password file in my pocket, and I only log onto my computer with a user account that has no Administrator rights so the start-up process can't be changed without my permission being asked.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:43 pm

Will do. Thanks for the advice.

Post by **LarsMac** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:48 am

You probably want to redact that image.

or even remove it, now that the point has been made.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:53 am

LarsMac;1399199 wrote: You probably want to redact that image.

or even remove it, now that the point has been made.

Good idea.

Spot! Spot!! A little help here.

Post by **LarsMac** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:57 am

Are you using one of the free anti-virus programs?

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:03 am

LarsMac;1399201 wrote: Are you using one of the free anti-virus programs?

Yes. Avast.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:04 am

This is the first problem I have encountered. I have it installed on all 5 of my comps.

Post by **spot** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:43 am

I think it's more likely you typed your password into a hijack page through your browser, possibly in response to an email asking you to click to a page very like the standard login page. That's more likely than the infection notice - I think that's more likely to have been a red herring, and I think Avast did all it was meant to. The thing Malwarebytes highlighted was very unlikely to have been on your computer, and all these programs give an occasional false positive.

The graphic's gone, and I've removed mention of your ISP too.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:01 am

spot;1399206 wrote: I think it's more likely you typed your password into a hijack page through your browser, possibly in response to an email asking you to click to a page very like the standard login page. That's more likely than the infection notice - I think that's more likely to have been a red herring, and I think Avast did all it was meant to. The thing Malwarebytes highlighted was very unlikely to have been on your computer, and all these programs give an occasional false positive.

The graphic's gone, and I've removed mention of your ISP too.

Thank you Spot.