corrupted e mail

[1DC]

This must be fairly common but i couldn't find it in Q & A's.
Mrs 1DC uses e mail by hotmail and about a month ago her contacts list was corrupted and most of her contacts were sent e mails not from her but apparently from her and some were of a bit of a spicy nature!!
I deleted her contact list and it seemed to solve the problem.This week she put a couple of names back into the contact list and these contacts have again received an e mail offering viagra etc. for sale, apparently from her...
Can anyone suggest how i could solve the problem??

[Keef]

Stop using hotmail.

Her account sounds to have been hacked. I know several folks who have had the same experience.

Gmail is free, and well behaved. It works in much the same way and has several features hotmail doesn't (or didn't, when I used hotmail).

[green granite]

The first thing to do is run several different malware detection programs to check for and remove any key loggers or other Trojans, and then change the hotmail password, and try again.

[1DC]

Many thanks, I will do that..

1DC

[TZ350]

Keef [quote ] Stop using hotmail. [ quote ]

I would like to eliminate completely any need for hotmail.

Unfortunately I have a bunch of stuff in hotmail folders; what is the easiest ( best ) way to transfer the messages to an alternative storage system, short of forwarding them all to, say, a gmail account ? It would be nice to be able to see the content and access as per the original, but I guess that's not possible. Would a high GB USB stick work or.....? Thanks.

[Mike-Bracknell]

It's probably not that someone's compromised your security, more likely is that there's a virus that alters the settings on your hotmail. When in Hotmail, check the options -> further options and look in the forwarding and out of office options for any text etc.

[old fart]

I use g mail.
My address book was hacked and everyone sent rubbish mails.
The only way to prevent this happening again, was to change my g mail password.
cheers

[DX Wombat]

Are you using AVG with anything other than W7? If you are, have you recently updated it to the 2012 version? If you have you may well have downloaded a trojan which was attached to the update. Spybot will find it for you and allow you to kill it off.