Screwed over by hotmail

[MetalOverlord76]

I've been receiving the same type of spam through email from a particular medical website for almost two years. My junk folder only ever contains filtered messages from them. I either just block / delete these contacts, though I've came to the conclusion that these emails have a random combination of letters and numbers that are automatically generated every so often to send spam. It hasn't become so much of a concern until recently that one of my friends said they recently received an odd email from my email address. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about, and I sure as hell didn't send him any email recently. I log into my email address which ends in @live.com. After browsing my recently sent emails folder, I came to the unfortunate discovery that a number of spam emails that were sent with my email were distributed to all my contacts. Various people have also been receiving some emails with spam containing... mature content that were sent by my email.

As far as I know, it's not like my account has been stolen by a 14 year old who did it for the lulz, but rather that this particular company somehow found a way to exploit my email address for their personal gain.

On a side note, the exact same thing has happened to my father's email, of which he uses for professional reasons. He had to apologize to every one of his contacts who received a suspicious email from his email address.

I don't know if what I've said makes much sense, but emails are being sent that I'm not sending. I've updated my password and messed with some account settings and made some of my contact information private.

Would you recommend a course of action I should take?
Should I just replace my email with a new one every so often?
Are what these guys do legal?

 

[Legodude522]

Kinda off topic but I've totally been getting this kind of spam from this girl I don't talk to anymore but don't want to confront her about it. XD

 

[Indigo]

To be honest, this kind of issue is prevalent with Yahoo and Hotmail all the damn time

Folks need to show these companies that their filtering and antispam practices don't work (which is odd, because we use Microsoft's enterprise class filtering at work, and it's great)

For the years I've had GMail, I've never had this happen on any of my accounts. It just doesn't exist with GMail. My family still has some AOL holdouts too, and they have the same issues there as well. Ugh!

 

[officemanager1]

I've been receiving the same type of spam through email from a particular medical website for almost two years. My junk folder only ever contains filtered messages from them. I either just block / delete these contacts, though I've came to the conclusion that these emails have a random combination of letters and numbers that are automatically generated every so often to send spam. It hasn't become so much of a concern until recently that one of my friends said they recently received an odd email from my email address. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about, and I sure as hell didn't send him any email recently. I log into my email address which ends in @live.com. After browsing my recently sent emails folder, I came to the unfortunate discovery that a number of spam emails that were sent with my email were distributed to all my contacts. Various people have also been receiving some emails with spam containing... mature content that were sent by my email.

As far as I know, it's not like my account has been stolen by a 14 year old who did it for the lulz, but rather that this particular company somehow found a way to exploit my email address for their personal gain.

On a side note, the exact same thing has happened to my father's email, of which he uses for professional reasons. He had to apologize to every one of his contacts who received a suspicious email from his email address.

I don't know if what I've said makes much sense, but emails are being sent that I'm not sending. I've updated my password and messed with some account settings and made some of my contact information private.

Would you recommend a course of action I should take?
Should I just replace my email with a new one every so often?
Are what these guys do legal?

I think your computer is infected with malware for this to happen.

Get hold of an anti-malware software such as Malwarebytes to rid your PC of the infection.
Also make sure your antivirus/firewall is up to date as this could also be another problem for you.

 

[strollin]

I've used Hotmail as my primary email account since 1998 and I don't believe this has ever happened to me. I don't believe it's a Hotmail issue.

BTW, how does some spam being sent from your email address constitute being "screwed over"?

 

[Captain Pooka]

If it keeps happening then it's probably a keylogger. How to KEEP this from happening? Same thing OG said. Get Gmail. I've never had it happen either. Though if it's a keylogger it could happen with any provider.

I'm not complaining though.. some times these things are good for me. I have my Mom's hotmail set up on my phone, as well as all my email addresses. She's on the "Band boosters" mailing list for my High School.. but we've been out of HS for a loong time. That means there are MANY people on this mailing list, people that don't need to be.
Well anyway, someone got hacked and sent an email to all of the bandboosters mailing list. Best I can do (and I did) is tell everyone not to open it (I replied to all the bandboosters) and to scan their computers if they did. It could mean business for me though if computers start acting up!

Download ComboFix and run that. Run it in Safe Mode too

-Q

 

[~Darkseeker~]

This is just a problem with eMail technology in general. Especially email accounts that are stored online (although Gmail's authentication and security is better). There are all kinds of softwares designed specifically for the purpose for getting hold of your email information; keyloggers, worms and sometimes Trojans will also subtly monitor what you're logging into. Have you logged in to your email account from any PC except your own? If you log in to your account on any PC with such malwares on it, you'll likely have your account commandeered for the purpose of selling cheap internet Viagra.

First thing's first; check your own PC for such softwares (and your dad's). Often if malware is designed to steal your identity or other information, it's highly likely you won't notice it, because it's designed that way. Unfortunately, one they've got your account login details it's quite hard to get them out. firstly try changing your password to something very complex. Failing that, it's probably best to create a new mail account. Does your dad not have the standard business disclaimer in his email sig? (This is at the end of mine)

This e-mail is only for the use of its intended recipient. Its contents are subject to a duty of confidence and may be privileged. Fujitsu does not guarantee that this e-mail has not been intercepted and amended or that it is virus-free.

 

[MetalOverlord76]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I have indeed logged onto a few machines, one of which may very well be infected. I will change emails now, and do everything I can to prevent it from happening again.

 

[Legodude522]

Here is the big question, why are you still using Hotmail? lol