Hi,

This morning while I was at work my hotmail account {removed email address} was used to send five different (but very similar) spam emails to all my contacts (including myself at work).  Interesting to see that each email had a certain contact in the To field and then a selection of my contacts in the BCC and the subject line changed a little, i.e. Dear !s! (subject in two messages), Dear !q!, Dear !i!, Dear !v!.

The message body was:

Hey! how are you today ?
I found a good website last week: ( www.ec-b2b.com )
One of my friend bought a notebook and he got the product in one week. Its quality is very good and the price is competitive.
They also sell Laptop,TV,Games,Phones,Camera,Motorcycles and so on.
their product are fully with original quality
Now , the Christmas day is coming, this website will be a good choice for you. I am sure you will get many surprise and benefits.
please forgive me for this email if you are not interested in anything upon them
Greetings!
rqygcc (This part changing in each)

I have previously received an email like this but I never clicked the link within it.  I am very careful when receiving emails and don't open links casually - most of the time I don't even play WMF or PPS files in junk emails from friends.  If I didn't click the link then how is it that this has happened?  What do I tell my friends and family to protect them from the same thing happening - especially if you don't have to click the link to be affected?

I have read the "Recent reports of Account hijacks" and have already changed my password and secret question and answer.  I am currently running the Malicious Software Removal Tool and also the Full Service OneCare Safety Scanner.  Do I need to change my password again once the scanning has finished?

We use Norton 360 and also have auto windows updates but haven't had anything picked up through Norton scanning.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Hi FarrahT

the same appened to me!

plus all my contact in the contact list desappeared also in msn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! really annoying...did you find any solution???

Me Again,

Well the Malicious Software Removal Tool and also the Full Service OneCare Safety Scanner have finished running and have found nothing.

I appear to still have all of my contacts in my contact list too.

Is it possible that this wasn't a virus/trojam/worm or whatever on my computer but someone else actually hacking into my hotmail account to send these five emails?

Now what???

Thanks,

@ FarrahT

You can try the link below to know how to secure your account:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

Note: I’ve moved this thread here in the Accounts and Passwords forum.

@ torino79

One possible reason for the issue you’re having is Malware. While our product team is still investigating it, I suggest that you enhance the security of your account in the meantime. You can visit this link for some tips:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/safety/archive/2009/04/29/recent-reports-of-account-hijacks.aspx

For your missing contacts, I suggest that you post this issue under the Contacts & Address Book forum to have it addressed properly. Please post your e-mail address and at least 3 deleted contacts from your list.

Yes, malware is one possible reason. But it's not why the recent rash of these spams have been going out. The same thing has happened to me (twice now). The first time I checked my computer for viruses and malware, and nothing was found.

Later, I started looking at the bounced messages I was getting back. They were old address, only living in my online hotmail account. They didn't exist on computer at all because I had updated the addresses in Outlook Express to delete the old stuff. They couldn't have come from my computer because it didn't have the addresses. Also, there's nothing in my Outlook Express Sent file that corresponds with the spam that went out.

No, these are coming from the Hotmail website and have nothing to do with my PC. I've changed my Hotmail password and will cross my fingers that this doesn't happen again. It's something Hotmail needs to fix, because other than changing the password, there's nothing I can do on this end.

@ Paul2010
As what we have experienced, malware caused this, and the virus makes your account send those messages.  Have you tried to follow the earlier posts?  If they were not working for you, you should get more help from the PC safety line:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

Yes, I did the earlier stuff. My computer is fine. And even if I hadn't, I would find it hard to believe that my computer is going to the hotmail website and sending things -- like I said, the email addresses do not exist on my PC, only at the Hotmail website.

As I recall, a short time ago this spamming happened and the news media reported that a number of Hotmail, gmail and Yahoo accounts' passwords had been hacked. That also would not involve my computer and I wouldn't have any control over it, other than changing my password. I didn't change it the the first time, but did it this time.

Your PC safety line is pretty basic stuff.

Paul2010, you are correct to say that Malware is one of the possible reasons of this attack; and this issue isn't exclusive to Malware. Our product team is still in the process of looking more into this problem. 

Meanwhile, I still suggest that you contact the Microsoft's Consumer Security Support Center regarding PC Safety line if you found the contents of their basic. You may go to their support page at: 

https://consumersecuritysupport.microsoft.com/default.aspx?mkt=en-us&scrx=1

Yesterday, my hotmail account was used to send a bogus marketing message to about 15 of the people in my hotmail contacts list. One contact was in the 'to' field and the others were in the blind copy (bcc) field. How can this have happened???!!! The bogus message included links to the site eoffar.com which may relate to electronics products, although I haven't looked.

I've used four security products to scan my computer for any virus and nothing has been reported. That's Norton, Windows Defender, Malware AntiBytes and Spybot. Perhaps the attack did not eminate from my PC but from a more serious hack staright into the hotmail website/database. The outgoing message is neatly included in my 'sent' folder. Perhaps I'm relatively lucky - only one message was sent, and nothing else seems to have changed.

I access my hotmail account only as webmail. I never acccess it using Outlook Express or anything. I've now changed my hotmail password and deleted all the contacts in the hotmail contacts list (many more than 15), in the hope that this helps.

Is it most likely that this came from a hack into my PC (e.g. a key-grabber) or a hack into the hotmail database?

I'm sorry to say I don't find links to general security warnings very helpful. I'm most interested in information relating to this specific issue, and how it can be guarded against.