Unwanted outgoing emails

[mrmecanx]

I have emails going out from my verizon.net account to people in my contact list. I have run virus scans using Microsoft Security Essentials, and have deleted all my contacts. People are STILL getting unwanted emails from my account. How is this possible?

Can virus be in the server? Did MSE miss the virus on my computer and IT saved the contacts? 

[Hubrisnxs]

Try Trend Micro's Free online tools and double check all of your stuff.  I recommend doing housecall and also the rootkitbuster at the bottom of the page. 

before doing any of that, the person may simply have your password and secret question, so log into your account and change both your password and your secret question.  

then run the tools above.   

verizon also offers a free scan as well (3 tries) at www.verizon.com/freetools

[mrmecanx]

Thanks I will try and see what happens.

[mrmecanx]

"Housecall" did not find anything. What could be going on here?

[mrmecanx]

Well looking at some other posts I see I am not the only one with this problem. Does anyone at Verizon read these forums? I will go over my settings again, (increasing SPAM a problem for me also) and continue virus scans. I HAVE scanned with two different programs and found NOTHING! (House Call, and Microsoft Security Essentials which is running all the time) If this continues to be a problem I'll have to look into my local cable company for ISP and phone service.

[dslr595148]

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@mrmecanx wrote:

Does anyone at Verizon read these forums?

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Quote from http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Residential-Products-and/ct-p/Residential_Support

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The Verizon Community Forums are where customers help other customers.

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So the answer is most likely, a no.

Anyways..

#1 Change the password to your account.

#2 Change the hint question/answer to your account.

Someone else might have gotton your log-in info, and they are using it...

[Adrenolin]

Your problem is likely 1 of 3 issues.

1. One is your PC is infected by a virus or trogon which is sending out the emails. Since you say you've scanned your PC with 2 scanners this may not be the problem however scanners are not always effective 100% of the time. You may still be infected.
2. The 2nd possibility is someone has been logging into your Verizon account and sending email from your webmail. This is very unlikely but still a slim possibility. Are the sent emails in your Sent folder? Regardless, change your Verizon password anyways as its a good thing to do now and then.
3. The 3rd possibility is your email address is being pulled from someone's database and being sent from another PC.. not originating from your PC at all. Anyone can put your email address in their email client or software program and send 1 or 1,000,000 emails. In this case there is really nothing at all you can do about it but let your friends and contacts know and wait it out. If you look at the Full Headers of the email that's being sent you'll be able to see if its coming from your home PC, if its coming from a PC on the Verizon network or from somewhere else by the IP addresses and routing information. Again not much you can do if someone else is sending email using your address however by looking at the Full Headers you will find out if its originating from your PC (virus/trogon) or somewhere else.

Either way changing ISPs/Providers will accomplish nothing at all except for getting you a new email address. If someone else is using your email address your contact will continue to get them regardless and there is nothing you can do about that. Verizon allows sub-accounts so you could create a new email address without moving to a different provider and the headaches associated with that.

Good luck.