email scam - HELP!

[MissFM]

have just received an email purportedly from a friend mugged at knifepoint in Manila - stupidly I forwarded it to him at the address in my address book and he thinks the scammers will now have hacked into my own computer - what do I do???Please!!!

[IanM]

Re: email scam - HELP!

have just received an email purportedly from a friend mugged at knifepoint in Manila - stupidly I forwarded it to him at the address in my address book and he thinks the scammers will now have hacked into my own computer - what do I do???Please!!!

Close everything, disconnect from the internet and do a full security scan on your PC!

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Once you have followed Ian's advise, tell your friends via another account (facebook maybe) what has happened

[FlamingParrot]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Are you using a hotmail account or similar free email account? Those are very often hacked, virtually everyone I know with a hotmail account has experienced hacking in the past. Such hacking is usually done on the mail server rather than your own computer.

If you've got up-to-date antivirus protection on your computer, it's unlikely to have been hacked. To be on the safe side, try scanning your computer using this free utility ---> http://www.techspot.com/downloads/47...i-malware.html

I've used it many times over the past 7 years or so and it often picks up stuff that your regular AV hasn't.

[dogtired]

Re: email scam - HELP!

do they do one for android tablets?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: email scam - HELP!

do they do one for android tablets?

Uhmm, you'll have to search the Android market place. I'm sorry I don't know the answer, I use an iPad - the IOS is very tight and only runs apps vetted by Apple, so I don't have to use anything like that on my tablet, although I use it on my (Windows) laptop.

[bluebottle]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Are you using a hotmail account or similar free email account? Those are very often hacked, virtually everyone I know with a hotmail account has experienced hacking in the past. Such hacking is usually done on the mail server rather than your own computer.

If you've got up-to-date antivirus protection on your computer, it's unlikely to have been hacked. To be on the safe side, try scanning your computer using this free utility ---> http://www.techspot.com/downloads/47...i-malware.html

I've used it many times over the past 7 years or so and it often picks up stuff that your regular AV hasn't.

I've got AVG and McAfee on my laptop, FP, but they cannot stop everything. One piece of malware managed to by-pass them both recently and put me off-line for a week. How did I deal with it? Luckily, a friend of mine who is a wizard with IT, had come across the malware before and told me to disconnect from the internet. Apparently, the malware was one of a type that relied on an active internet connection in order to function. Remove the connection and it couldn't function or update itself. As for hacking, I have Hotmail/Outlook and the anti-spam filters seem to work well on that with only a few getting through.

[alham]

Re: email scam - HELP!

do they do one for android tablets?

I think android is much more hack-proof than ms based.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: email scam - HELP!

I agree, no AV works 100%. I stopped using the big names Norton/McAfee ages ago because they just take over your system and still let some nasties through. I was using Karsperski (courtesy of Barclays) till it let something through on my old PC, then I started using NOD32 which I'd used in 2001. MalwareBytes is a good supplement, I often use it to double-check before opening something I've just downloaded.

I get a lot of emails purporting to be from friends who use hotmail, their accounts have been hijacked by spammers.

[dogtired]

Re: email scam - HELP!

I had a look and there are several Android aps.
As yet I have had no issues but you never now!
Back on the lap top and aboout to do a scan.

[MissFM]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Huge thank you to all - have followed advice and I think it must be OK. There were a large number of (Trackers? something that Norton regarded as low risk) then the FP (thanks FP!) recommendation found some things that looked really nasty - Trojans?

You guys are amazing!

What are trojans btw?

Thank you, thank you, thank you

[Turboman]

Re: email scam - HELP!

original

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse

modern

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_...28computing%29

[MissFM]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Thanks Turbs - knew what the "real" one was but the computer ones also sound really nasty:boink:Would they have come from the email?

[Turboman]

Re: email scam - HELP!

They can come from

• E-Mails,
• corrupt discs (often free on front of computer mags),
• or from downloads you may have done from a web site

I don't know much more though--

[MissFM]

Re: email scam - HELP!

Then they take over???