Remember - This is a public forum so never post private information such as email or phone numbers!Ideas:Programs you are having problems with Error messages Recent changes you made to your computer What you have already tried to fix the problem 2 people need an answerI do too

How do you know they were sent junk from your Hotmail account? Do you see evidence in the Sent folder that messages were sent?Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

the message which was sent out was sent to ALL of the people on my Contacts list in my Hotmail account..... the message itself was a fictitious UR L...........

I really think that if someone took over your Hotmail account, they'd have locked you out. Just in case, though, without any more delay, change your LiveID's password to something unguessable.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

how do you explain that everyone on my Contacts list got the same bogus email (a fake URL)? I think is some sort of virus/malware.........a friend had this happen to her Hotmail account a month ago ........I was one of the repeated recipients of bogus emails sent from her Hotmail account...... eventually, her account was sending out so many phony emails to ALL of the people on her Contacts list that she had to close her Hotmail account......I don't want that to happen to my Hotmail account(also, I don't have a LiveID password....... unless that's the same as my regular Hotmail password??)

Your LiveID is usually your Hotmail address. As I said, if you're worried, change the account's password.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

and what if this problem is caused by a virus? then, what do I do?

It's unlikely that this is a virus proiblem, particularly if you access Hotmail via your web browser.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

a similar thing happened (as I mentioned above) to a friend of mine recently with her Hotmail account....... all of the people on her Contacts list started receiving, every 2 weeks or so, junk emails from her Hotmail account....... eventually, she had to close her Hotmail account........ I think it might be a virus/malware........

Again, if you're accessing Hotmail using a web browser, it's impossible for it to be a virus or malware. It could be, however, that your Hotmail account was compromised and that's why I've told you change the credentials for the account.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

Hello. I guess I don't understand this: why is it impossible for it to be a virus/malware in my Hotmail account if I use Hotmail via the web. Based on the recent story I told you about someone I know, couldn't there be a problem on Hotmail's end (the virus/malware could be penetrating from the Hotmail side, or something like that)?

You're correct that if the Hotmail server were infected, then such mailware could be using your Hotmail account. If that were the case, nothingyou could do will affect it. It wouldn't be your PC with the infection. In my opinion, it's highly unlikely that one of Microsoft's servers could be infected that way for any length of time. It would be noticed quickly and the infected system isolated and cleaned, with preventatives put in place against further intrusion.A virus on your PC is, in my opinion, unlikely to use the web interface to access your Hotmail account and send messages as though you were entering web commands.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

You're correct that if the Hotmail server were infected, then such mailware could be using your Hotmail account. If that were the case, nothing you could do will affect it. It wouldn't be your PC with the infection. In my opinion, it's highly unlikely that one of Microsoft's servers could be infected that way for any length of time. It would be noticed quickly and the infected system isolated and cleaned, with preventatives put in place against further intrusion.A virus on your PC is, in my opinion, unlikely to use the web interface to access your Hotmail account and send messages as though you were entering web commands.Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]------------------------------If a reply helps, please vote it as helpful. If a reply solves the issue, please mark it as an answer.

hello...... thank you for your help...... I'm still a bit confused, but appreciate your time........

I had this event occur recently - as soon as I realized that I had sent tons of spam, I changed my password and have not seen the problem since... I was logged onto Instant Messenger at the time - is it possible that a virus on my computer could operate through messenger while logged in? I had just uninstalled my Anti-virus (AVG) within an hour of the event and I was not online - my only connection to the outside world was through Messenger at the time.Regardless of the cause - Brian's first suggestion is probably the best - change the password right away!(one side note - the original message that was went appears in my sent folder in the hotmail account - so I assume the perpetrator had access for a short period of time)

Dear Jbambery,Hello. Thank you for your reply.I wrote about my problem 4 months ago, in June 2010. So, I was surprised to see your reply today.But, then, this problem has happened AGAIN since June; it happened about 3 weeks ago: friends of mine from my Contacts list had received spam from my Hotmail account!! I was kinda' pissed at the previous replies from Brian when this new attack happened again, as there is a problem which Brian obviously does not understand.I will try your approach and change my password. Hopefully, that will resolve this problem.Thank you,Dan

Good luck with it... I mentioned the possible Messenger connection because some access to my account would have been necessary - the message showed up in my Sent folder...Admittedly, I have been a little sloppy with my passwords in the past on this particular account - so it is conceivable that someone logged in elsewhere, sent everyone on my list a '____' advertisement and moved on... But I normally receive a message about being logged on at different locations if my Messenger account is left open elsewhere...So... I have settled on the problem being generated by the computer I was on at the time.As a check - I've added my own email to my address list so that I can monitor similar behavior when messenger is open - that way if I spam myself (along with all my friends, family and coworkers) I'll know right away and change the password again.JB

thank you for your help.

Hi,I had similar problems. In my case, I checked my email Sent folder and sure enough, the offending emails ere from me, though I had not sent them.You must change your password, but there is no point in this while you are sharing your account with a second party. This is what you are doing, even if the second party is malware. You have to get rid of it..You probably have antivirus software and think that everything is ok. I was in the same position, and it wasn’t.After reading around this is what I did and the problem was solved.First use CCleaner (free) to get rid of rubbish on your machine. Some people say this removes only small amounts etc, but I disagree. This is free from:http://www.piriform.com/ccleanerNext, use a registry cleaner, but be careful. Some registry cleaners can mess things up. I use CleanMyPC. This is not free, but is around £38 for a lifetime subscription. If you want a free one you would have to read around. Before the cleaning scan, use the Privacy Eraser. Yes, you used CleanMyPC just now. People will say it is a waste of time. I disagree, and it takes seconds. CleanMyPC is available here:http://www.registry-cleaner.net/Download, install, update and run Malawarebytes. Once installed, before scanning, update. This is available free from:http://www.malwarebytes.org/Download, install, update and run SpywareRemovalToolkit. Once installed, before scanning, update. It will ask if you want to clean up rubbish on the machine. You have already done this twice with CCleaner and CleanMyPC. Don’t worry, do it again. This is available free from:http://www.spywareremovaltoolkit.com/Next, read this:http://www.kensavage.com/archives/how-to-crack-a-computer-password/comment-page-1/Notice that it can take just minutes to crack a password of 6 lower case characters. I would suggest a minimum of 11 characters, with a mix of lower case, upper case, numbers and other characters.Check your password strength, somewhere such as here:https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspxChange your Hotmail password.If all of this fails you will need to use one of the expert forums available and create logs using something like hijack this.Good luck.Brian

Hi,I had similar problems. In my case, I checked my email Sent folder and sure enough, the offending emails were from me, though I had not sent them.You must change your password, but there is no point in this while you are sharing your account with a second party. This is what you are doing, even if the second party is malware. You have to get rid of it..You probably have antivirus software and think that everything is ok. I was in the same position, and it wasn’t. You must keep your antivirus software though and must have a guard running. It all has to be up to date.After reading around this is what I did, and the problem was solved.First use CCleaner (free) to get rid of rubbish on your machine. Some people say this removes only small amounts etc, but I disagree. This is free from:http://www.piriform.com/ccleanerNext, use a registry cleaner, but be careful. Some registry cleaners can mess things up. I use CleanMyPC. This is not free, but is around £38 for a lifetime subscription. If you want a free one you would have to read around. Before the cleaning scan, use the Privacy Eraser. Yes, you used CleanMyPC just now. People will say it is a waste of time. I disagree, and it takes seconds. CleanMyPC is available here:http://www.registry-cleaner.net/Download, install, update and run Malawarebytes. Once installed, before scanning, update. This is available free from:http://www.malwarebytes.org/Download, install, update and run SpywareRemovalToolkit. Once installed, before scanning, update. It will ask if you want to clean up rubbish on the machine. You have already done this twice with CCleaner and CleanMyPC. Don’t worry, do it again. This is available free from:http://www.spywareremovaltoolkit.com/Make sure Windiws is updated.Make sure you have just one firewall running.Next, read this:http://www.kensavage.com/archives/how-to-crack-a-computer-password/comment-page-1/Notice that it can take just minutes to crack a password of 6 lower case characters. I would suggest a minimum of 11 characters, with a mix of lower case, upper case, numbers and other characters.Check your password strength, somewhere such as here:https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspxChange your Hotmail password.If all of this fails you will need to use one of the expert forums available and create logs using something like hijack this.Good luck.Brian

Hi,I had similar problems.In my case, I checked my email Sent folder and sure enough, the offending emails were from me, though I had not sent them. You must change your password, but there is no point in this while you are sharing your account with a second party. This is what you are doing, even if the second party is malware. You have to get rid of it.. You probably have antivirus software and think that everything is ok. I was in the same position, and it wasn’t. You must keep your antivirus software though and must have a guard running. It all has to be up to date.After reading around this is what I did, and the problem was solved.First use CCleaner (free) to get rid of rubbish on your machine. Some people say this removes only small amounts etc, but I disagree. This is free from:http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner.Next, use a registry cleaner, but be careful. Some registry cleaners can mess things up. I use CleanMyPC. This is not free, but is around £38 for a lifetime subscription. If you want a free one you would have to read around. Before the cleaning scan, use the Privacy Eraser. Yes, you used CleanMyPC just now. People will say it is a waste of time. I disagree, and it takes seconds. CleanMyPC is available here: http://www.registry-cleaner.net/Download, install and run Kaspersky TDSS Killer. This is available free from:http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684Download, install, update and run Malawarebytes. Once installed, before scanning, update. This is available free from: http://www.malwarebytes.org/Download, install, update and run SpywareRemovalToolkit. Once installed, before scanning, update. It will ask if you want to clean up rubbish on the machine. You have already done this twice with CCleaner and CleanMyPC. Don’t worry, do it again. This is available free from:http://www.spywareremovaltoolkit.com/Make sure Windows is updated.Make sure you have just one firewall running.Make sure if you are using IE that Internet Protected Mode is enabled. If you have Windows Vista and have turned off UAC it can turn off Protected Mode.Next, read this:http://www.kensavage.com/archives/how-to-crack-a-computer-password/comment-page-1/Notice that it can take just minutes to crack a password of 6 lower case characters. I would suggest a minimum of 11 characters, with a mix of lower case, upper case, numbers and other characters.Check your password strength, somewhere such as here:https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspxChange your Hotmail password.If all of this fails you will need to use one of the expert forums available and create logs using something like hijack this.Good luck.