Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

I am running IE9 on Windows 7 Professional and have Kaspersky 2011 anti-virus on my computer. Within the last day or so, my email address is being used to send out emails for Viagra etc. A number of "undeliverable mail" starting popping up. I ran the Kaspersky and nothing shows up! Ran a full scan and ran a critical areas scan and nothing!! What do I do?

Reply 1 : Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

kipowen..

I might be able to provide more detailed information, if I knew which kind of account it was. Hotmail? Gmail? No matter which one, it's imperative you can change your password. The below I copied from a prior post (of mine), where a member's Windows Live account was compromised. The information is universal. The settings may vary, according to the account.

''When your account has been compromised, the most important things you can do, is change your password, and change your secret question and answer, . Have you done that?

If you're unable to access your account to re-set your password, see if Account Password Recovery, offers any additional information.

Also See:
Important Security Information To Know,
Recent reports of Account hijacks, " ''

You might also try scanning with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and/or SUPERAntiSpyware. Both are free. Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware can be downloaded from here or (directly) from here. And SUPERAntiSpyware FREE Edition from here.

Best of luck..
Carol

Reply 2 : Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

I did change my password and also installed ESET online scanner (recommended by Grif Thomas) and the Malwarebytes program. Everything checked out fine, no infections! Thanks!!

Reply 3 : Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

I'll guess that you're getting responses from your ISP or from friends in your email address book.. If that's the case, it's entirely possible there is a computer somewhere selse that's infected. Not yours. Many of the current viruses/worms have the ability to grab the email address of ANYONE that previously sent a message to that computer and it places the address in the "From" line of the virus/spam it's sending out.. That's how "zombie" computers work.. They're able to spoof the email address or IP address of someone else's computer, making it look like the message was sent from "you" instead of the actual location of the infected computer.

Of course, it's important to make sure your computer is clean.. Download and run the free online ESET scanner using the link below.

Note: Clicking on the link below will immediately load the download dialogue window for the ESET scanner installer.. Download the file and run it to then install and run the online scanner.
ESET
Online Scanner


And after that, download, install, update, then run a full system scan with the free Malwarebytes tool from the link below.. It does a good job at identifying and removing lots of spyware and trojans.

Malwarebytes
Antimalware


Hope this helps.

Grif

Reply 4 : Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

Grif,
Both you and Carol provided good insight as to what is happening. After installing the two programs you recommended, it appears that my computer is not infected! That's a relief!! I changed my password, just to be safe. The fact that someone can send out an email that appears to come from me is troubling, but at least I know that my computer is not the problem. Thanks so much for your help. You folks really provide a great service to everyone, and I am truly grateful. Thanks again!!

Reply 5 : Emails being sent out by someone else with my name on it

did you log in to some public computer using your email??

I think in your case your account must be compromised,