Contact File or AOL Adress Book Hijacked!

[KimCaroline]

Although I run anti-virus software and recently upgraded to a new HD, for the
second time in a month I have been the victim of someone hacking into my
Contacts or AOL Adress Book (the two are virtually identical) and using the
data to SPAM all of my contacts with an email containing a trojan file (a
nefarious code was put into the HTML code) and "nice" message from me (from
my AOL email address).

I thread my AOL mail through Outlook. I don't have AOL on my desktop or
venture onto their site. I also use AOL as my mail app on my iPhone.

Everything else seems stable on my computer so I'm wondering if the hacker
was able to "grab" my personal data from some other application or device,
e.g., the iPhone?

Could someone please help me get started in solving how this could have
happened? I've run several virus scans with no results.

Thank you,

KimCaroline


--
MS WIN 7 HOME PREMIUM (64-bit) / MS OFFICE 2007
PC TOOLS SPY DOCTOR 2010
DELL Dimension 9200a (desktop 2007)
CPU: Intel Q6700 2.6Hz
RAM: 4 GB

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

How did you become aware of the spamming?
Was every address in the list spammed?

They could get it anywhere - if they really did get your address book, it
was likely directly from the AOL website or using a trojan installed on your
computer - when you sent or received mail, it collected the addresses as
they left the computer. But Spammers can collect addresses from various
sources - mailing list archives posted on the web, addresses on web pages,
etc - and they could have gotten your address and the other addresses from a
source other than your contacts.



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Exchange server do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=33803

 

[KimCaroline]

Good points. I became aware of the spamming when over 100 "DAEMONS" showed up
in my AOL/Outlook mailbox indicating that the email "I" sent to over 200
people (all from my address book / contact list) was marked a spam by most
users' email systems.

Most of my friends and colleagues who did receive the spam recognized that I
would never send links advertising cheap electronics and devices. (I'm an
author and writer, not a salesman).

The weird thing (creepy even) is that one of the things advertised was a new
3 G i-phone for much-less than US prices... I just bought a new 3 G last
week! Coincidence???

Do you have any suggestions about what I should do? If I Google for answers,
a million different methods of virus removal come up. Should I change my
email address and have each computer in my family disinfected by Macafee or
Norton?

Thanks again,
KimCaroline


--
Intermediate Computer User
MS WIN 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
MS Office 2007
PC Tools Spy Doctor 2010
DELL Dimension 9200a (desktop)
CPU: Intel Q6700 2.6Hz / RAM: 4 GB

How did you become aware of the spamming?
Was every address in the list spammed?

They could get it anywhere - if they really did get your address book, it
was likely directly from the AOL website or using a trojan installed on your
computer - when you sent or received mail, it collected the addresses as
they left the computer. But Spammers can collect addresses from various
sources - mailing list archives posted on the web, addresses on web pages,
etc - and they could have gotten your address and the other addresses from a
source other than your contacts.



--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com/

Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Poll: What version of Exchange server do you use?
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=33803

Although I run anti-virus software and recently upgraded to a new HD, for
the
second time in a month I have been the victim of someone hacking into my
Contacts or AOL Adress Book (the two are virtually identical) and using
the
data to SPAM all of my contacts with an email containing a trojan file (a
nefarious code was put into the HTML code) and "nice" message from me
(from
my AOL email address).

I thread my AOL mail through Outlook. I don't have AOL on my desktop or
venture onto their site. I also use AOL as my mail app on my iPhone.

Everything else seems stable on my computer so I'm wondering if the hacker
was able to "grab" my personal data from some other application or device,
e.g., the iPhone?

Could someone please help me get started in solving how this could have
happened? I've run several virus scans with no results.

Thank you,

KimCaroline


--
MS WIN 7 HOME PREMIUM (64-bit) / MS OFFICE 2007
PC TOOLS SPY DOCTOR 2010
DELL Dimension 9200a (desktop 2007)
CPU: Intel Q6700 2.6Hz
RAM: 4 GB