Email Address Book Hacked

Viruses and worms
1

Hello,

I wrote a topic here a little while ago about my address book seemingly being hacked, with a spoof email in my name being sent out to contacts in it. This has just happened again and after some searching of google, some sites say that it could be a virus on the computer collecting addresses (?) so thought I’d check it out as it’s now the second time it’s happened.

My Mum contacted me saying that she had received an email from me with a link in it. It had my full name as the ‘sender’, but on closer look it wasn’t my email. Instead it was my full name [at] quickneasy123.com (or something very similar, she was telling me over the phone LOL). So, my understanding is this is a spoof, supported by the fact that there was no mail in my sent folder, and no mailer returned emails from older contacts.

However, as well as using my full name, it sent it to contacts from my address book. So either they have managed to somehow hack my address book without hacking into my actual email account…or they’ve managed to get hold of my address book some other way.

I have an aol email account, usually access it through an internet browser, or sometimes through my phone app (also protected by Avast).

I have attached logs, although the aswMBR one might be incomplete as it crashed my puter.

Thanks in advance, I’m rubbish at this stuff!

2

The system looks clean

As to how this occurs then see this thread http://superuser.com/questions/725234/how-do-scammers-get-your-contacts-when-they-send-emails-that-appear-to-come-from

The last response is very pertinent

3

Hi,

Thanks for looking at that, that reassures me that it’s not malware/spyware (whichever it is, are they even different? LOL)

I’m not convinced it’s what they say on that website…the contacts that it was sent to from my address book are completely unrelated, and some were business and shops and colleagues I’d never use for anything other than single, professional emails with no CCs or anything.

I found a page from last year where a guy was saying the same thing had happened to him, and he also had aol mail, and again he had a completely unique group of people from his contact list used (ie, not connected, wouldn’t have sent stuff out to any of them together etc).

So I can’t help but wonder if there’s a particular weakness in AOL’s services where it’s possible to get hold of parts without getting into the actual email account. Likewise, ages ago something was added to my aol calendar (which I never use) that I didn’t put there.

Thanks for looking for me though, it’s put my mind at rest that it’s not something on my actual computer!

4

There is a probability that the AOL web mail was hacked (it has happened to AOL before) but all you can do is change your passwaord and ensure that it is strong