I searched for this issue, couldn’t find anything, so hopefully this is not a duplication.
I have Avast free version; it does not seem to be checking the outgoing mail. I mention this because I am recently getting a lot of “undeliverable” notices from my ISP. I don’t know if I am sending spam, or if this is one of the latest spam methods. I ran a virus scan, completely clean. So… how can I get Avast to check outgoing smtp mail? It clearly checks all incoming, for example if I send myself an email, I see the incoming as being checked, but I never see the outgoing. My OS is XP service pack 3, all latest upgrades, my smtp is not secure. I changed my password on the affected account, made no difference.
Hi Craig, I’m using Thunderbird. But my concern is that Avast is not seeing not only my Thunderbird smtp, but it probably also won’t see any smtp from a spam program.
Yes, the mail goes out fine on all of my various accounts. At this point I am really just looking for a way to determine if my PC is actually sending spam, or if this is just mail made to look like returned mail so I’ll click on a link. the messages look real though, and a few of them do have my IP address in them. Why Avast is not detecting outgoing mail I don’t know… but perhaps that is the virus preventing it from being seen. I think I’ll run a boot scan to see if that finds anything.
Hello Essexboy! No, the “undeliverable” emails that my ISP is telling me about are not in my sent folder. None of the recipient names of these emails are anyone I know, nor are they in my contact list. If I have a virus that is sending spam, wouldn’t it be it use it’s own email client/program, so as not to be detected?
I’m still wondering why Avast is not showing that it’s checking my outgoing… isn’t that a strong indicator that I have some infection?
The Avast out and in stamps have been discontinued as they could lead to a false sense of security … Easily faked by spammers/phishers when they send the mail out
As they are not in your sent box then you have not been sending them… Someone has Hijacked your e-mail address
Hi, thanks for the quick response! I think you are probably correct that my account was hijacked. I did change the password on the account and the returned emails seem to have stopped.
Just a note however about emails appearing in my outbox or sent folder, my understanding is they would only do that if someone was actually using my specific email client (Thunderbird) to do the sending on my machine. For example, I’ve used “telnet” from the command prompt to send and receive emails from a simple program I wrote years ago in Basic. There is no trace on the PC of any email activity when doing that. I just checked and XP SP3 still supports that command line program.
Most likely someone was using one of the many sendmail programs out there on another PC somewhere.
But thanks to everyone… the response on this forum was fantastic and amazingly fast! There is a lot of talent and knowledge here!
I think you are probably correct that my account was hijacked. I did change the password on the account and the returned emails seem to have stopped.
Take a look at the following video (with Audio), that will explain the proper [url=http://portal.sliderocket.com/BSIUN/Recovering-from-an-Email-Hijack-_Hack_]Recovery from an Email Hijack (Hack)[/url]
I've produced this from a portion of [url=http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=78426.0]my presentation which is available for computer club and other groups of computer users[/url].
so check back tomorrow