<p>O.K… I have spent the last 2 and 1/2 hours contacting everybody I know online (not that many, thankfully) to tell them not to open any emails from my personal yahoo today about 5. I have run spybot S&D and it didn’t find diddly. I am assuming it wasn’t from my computer being compromised, but instead from yahoo’s server. </p>
<p>What else do I need to do? </p>
<p>Very un-pleasant experience. I’m now re-thinking my position on capital punishment. Grrrrr.</p>
<p>Change your password?
(This happened to me a few months ago. I haven’t had any problems since.)</p>
<p>I bet there are better sources than us, but I wouldn’t use that address any more. I’ve had it happen to a few contacts, and they said don’t open email from that address.</p>
<p>Curm, it is possible that someone else’s computer got compromised. Their email contacts contained your address, and that’s how the spammers got a hold of it. It is also possible that they are not sending the spam and nasties from your account dirctly but are raher “spoofing” them, so your address shows up as the sender’s address. It happened to a guy I knew - suddenly, his work email started sending out spam. :eek:</p>
<p>Get a new address and inform your friends of the change and tell them not to open anyhing from the old address.</p>
<p>^^^ What BB said. Good possibility that your email address was lifted from someone else’s contact list.</p>
<p>I had that happen to an AOL account. I have since switched to gmail. I immediately changed my AOL password. The mail came from my account, showed up in my sent mail and went out only to my email addresses. I have no idea how my email was hacked. But it was not spoofing.</p>
<p>A year later, when I was checking my email and forgetting the new password, I changed it back. And what do you know, within a day another round of emails went out. So I changed it back, and was glad I was not using it anymore. There was a server somewhere that must have been programed to just keep on trying with known email addresses and passwords. The file was a virus or trojan or something bad. I warned most folks and one random person who whose email address was in my book that I did not know personally (I rented a limo to the airport once and the email was in my book) sent me a nasty email about it.</p>
<p>Use gmail.<br>
Sorry you’re having to deal with this.</p>
<p>I reaaaaaaally hate hassles. Really. Thanks, folks. I also really hate change.</p>
<p>That happened with my yahoo account also. I think the computers of a vendor from whom I bought something online from got hacked. I used my yahoo address so that they could send me notifications when things shipped. And I used the same password for my vendor account as I had for my yahoo account. My bad…</p>
<p>I didn’t change accounts. I did get a much more difficult password that I don’t use anywhere else. And I don’t have anybody in my contact list. At least if they hit me again, they won’t spam all my friends.</p>
<p>[On the plus side, I did get to hear from people that I hadn’t heard from for quite some time…]</p>
<p>The same thing happened to me with my Gmail account about a month ago. Spam was sent to everyone on my contact list. I changed my password, but not my email address and have not had a problem since.</p>
<p>I received an omimous message from Yahoo yesterday, directing me to change my passwork because my email account had been possibly “compromised.”</p>
<p>I also think it is a good idea to use a special pw for your email that you do not use anywhere else. Security experts tell you to change passwords regularly. I realize that this is more difficult. </p>
<p>A good idea to check if it is “spoofing” or a real break in as well. Although bad, “spoofing” is not as bad as someone really getting into your account, as a poster above described.</p>
<p>Curm, are there any other symptoms/problems on your computer besides the spamming? Running slow, pop-ups?</p>
<p>Besides Spybot, you might also run another anti-malware program. They all pick up different things. I use [Malwarebytes</a> Anti-Malware](<a href=“http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html]Malwarebytes”>Malwarebytes Download Free - 4.5.33.272 | TechSpot)</p>
<p>Make sure your firewall is on. </p>
<p>Make sure your antivirus is up-to-date and scanning regularly.</p>
<p>If your puter continues to behave badly, you can try a System Restore. Just select a restore point that is before the problems started.</p>
<p>Well, thanks again. I’m going to get my twenty year old nephew out here with his bag o’ tricks to set me up. I guess I’ll just be killing that old yahoo account.</p>
<p>^^ Whenever I run into a technology problem, my first thought is, “Where’s the nearest teenager?”</p>
<p>Here’s an article from today’s Chicago Tribune that might be related to your problem.</p>
<p>[Problem</a> Solver: Customer says yay! after canceling Yahoo account - chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-biz-0717-problem-glancy-20110717,0,6870852.column?%2F]Problem”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-biz-0717-problem-glancy-20110717,0,6870852.column?%2F)</p>
<p>Also…here is a forum whose members are extremely helpful and respond very quickly with advice on everything you could think of where computers are concerned. I have used them many times when various computers have had trojans or spware etc. and you don’t need to be a whiz to talk with them
[Virtual</a> Dr Forums](<a href=“http://www.virtualdr.com%5DVirtual”>http://www.virtualdr.com)</p>