My computer keeps sending emails from "somewhere" to people in my contacts box. I got this "worm"/ virus, whatever, from a fellow fodorite (I won't say who). How do I get rid of this!!! I hate it when someone tells me that my computer is sending them junk mail. The junk mail is offers of items for sale... just junky stuff... and I want it to STOP. Suggestions?
To my Asia board friends, I'm so sorry if you are getting these junk emails. I'm really hoping to put it to a stop.
Thanks.

i think you may need a worm/virus clean up patch....but often once it is gone its too late...

last year i was getting those messages thru a fodorite from a chinese merchandise store.....they finally went away....

you should tell the person too

Bob, I've removed that person from my contacts file... hoping this would stop. It hasn't made a difference. Drat!!!

What's a clean up patch???

When was the last time that you had your virus scanner run a full system scan?

Carol, Sorry to hear about your computer virus hassles.Believe it or not here in Melbourne the same thing is happening to me. I wonder what is in the air !
Left a note on " Evelyne " dated Jan 24 last response for you
Will be in BKK this week then Chiang Mai for two days , doing some buyng and just thought you might have the answer for me [ I am sure many others will too ] Time is short unfortunately this time but the hotel manager sent me a lovely confirmation personal letter offering me 30% discount on all spa treatments [ lol ] now you know where I will be for the next 4 days.

Carol, there is an anti-virus programme called AVG which I have been using for several years after it was given rave reviews on a BBC series. It's free, and may solve your problem if you do a full scan. You can download the free version on the link below.

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

Hope it does the trick.

If my link doesn't work just google 'avg free'

First off, if you are not running proper security software, you should. AVG and other free programs have extremely limited use: the big problem with them is that they tend not to stay current and update themselves quickly enough. Norton Internet Security is a very good and reliable example, and it's inexpensive (under $100/year, and up to 3 computers are covered).

The mail issue is a problem that you know about. However, if your system does not have proper security protection, you are more vulnerable to other infections that are invisible and that could, for example, lead to identity theft. (Got any account numbers on your computer? Any passwords or PINs?)

Unfortunately, installing security s/w after your computer is already infected may not resolve the problem. If you are comfortable dealing with your PC's software (for example, you'd understand what to do if you were asked to delete a Registry entry), you could try to resolve the problem by poking around the Web and hunting for solutions. Failing that, the most likely way of being able to resolve the problem is either having a professional clean your system or re-installing the operating system. (Re-installing the operating system is a bit drastic, as all of your documents and programs would be gone -- you'd need to back everything up first).

Rizz
Thanks for all that info. Our computer guru at the store more or less said the same thing! I've downloaded the AVG, and I did a complete scan. It found a trojan horse and removed it. Don't know if that will solve the problem.

Re: any passwords/pins/etc... NO WAY I'd have them on my PC. But thanks for mentioning it.

Hope the trojan horse is all that was involved... we'll see. I may not know for a while.

i also have been using AVG for about 5 years..

Agree with Rizzuto - use Norton 360 and you can rest easy. The only thing that gets through is the odd tracking cookie and one of our computer in online 24/7 for "file sharing".

I just downloaded AVG but now i cant tell if i actually downloaded it? (well it all downloaded and then it asked me to remove a conflicting programme which i did) i rebooted but know i cant see if i have AVG or not (i am useless at these things!)

Obviously that should be but now I can't see

I used avg and there was an icon for it on my desktop as well as one in the menu tray - I have Windows XP......I switched to another free program as I felt the newest version of avg made my computer run slow. I used it for several years along with firewall and adware programs and never had any problems. Good luck!

Yep, there's a new icon on my desktop. I clicked on it, and then asked it to do a complete scan, which took quite a bit of time to do.

No icon?? (i have that dratted Vista) but i don't remember the bittorrent icon i now have!!!

Carol,

Norton is a very obtrusive software. It will almost certainly slow down your computer.
If the AVG icon bothers you.....just right click on it and then delete......only the icon will be removed. The software remains.
Stick with AVG......far better than Norton.

Try a google search asking for 'AVG versus Norton'.
You'll see the results.

In any case.....AVG has found and at least quarantined your Trojan.....so, mission accomplished......and for free.

Incidentally, AVG will update daily and is at least as current as Norton......if not more so.

I use MacAfee which is the anti-virus program my computer consultant recommends. Norton does conflict with a number of programs, so can cause problems. And the free security software, while better than nothing, is not as powerful nor updated as often as the security software you pay for.

I have now downloaded AVG 12 trojans were found!!! i uninstalled the programme they were found in.

I had MacAfee on my computer. It was always giving me problems (running random scans at bad times, slowed down the startup period, etc), so based on a thread here, I uninstalled it last week and downloaded the free Avast.

It is really amazing what a difference this has made in my computer's speed! Hope it's protecting my system as well.