Windows Live / msn messenger issues

Viruses and worms
1

I’ve had a good look through the forums for something that resembles my problem but drawn a blank. If this has been answered before then please accept my appologies and point me to the correct thread and I will be very grateful.
My issue…My daughter has a laptop and as you would expect uses MSN to chat to her mates etc. She is very sensible in her use and I have enabled parental controls etc, running avast!, spyware doctor and ad-aware. Windows XP Home.

Just lately when she logs into messenger she receives a message from herself
“…invites you to join facebook/singles website (delete as appropriate) at www.lnk.cm(random numbers)” These messages tend to be sent at 3 o’clock in the morning when she is safely tucked up in bed and are sent to all her msn contacts who are now beginning to complain. I have run avast! which detects nothing. Have tried to run avast! in safe mode and avast! will not start a scan.

Any ideas anyone - I’m pulling my hair out and contemplating a full format

2

Welcome to the forums, Andeesee :slight_smile:

While I have no experience with MSN nor it’s messenger service, someone at this forum should be able to help you soon.

3

Thanks for the welcome, I really hope someone can help me out. I’m sure this has to be the best place :-\

4

There is a possibility her password has been hacked - get her to change the password and see if that stops it

5

I would do a scan and replace spyware doctor and ad-aware with this program

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.46 http://filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
always run update before you scan so you have the latest database
click the remove selected button to quarantine anything found
you may post the scan log here

and change facbook password

Have tried to run avast! in safe mode and avast! will not start a scan.
strange.....do you have the latest 5.0.594 ? avast have something better.....boot time scan ( works only on 32bit OS ) http://sites.google.com/site/spg20scottsweb/home/avast-5-boot-time-scan
6

avast will not run real-time antivirus engine in safe mode but should still be able to scan. certainly does on my computer. You can also schedule a boot-time scan in safe mode that will run when the computer is restarted.

Make sure you are up to date with avast program and definitions.

This link should help with the Live / msn issues http://windowslivehelp.com/product.aspx?productid=10

7

Thanks for all the replies.

I have updated everything as suggested and understand about the real time scan in safe mode.

I will report back when I have worked through the list of suggestions

8

well first, don’t format anything, as this would change nothing. The issue is comparable to what happens when a hotmail account contact list has been harvested, except in your case the spamming is spread through IM instead of emails. Please tell your daughter to review her contact list and do a cleaning, block and report who she doesn’t know. The messages of course don’t come from herself. When this happens through mails the spam is sent using your friends names in the mail apparent header, but a quick look at the source list shows that it was sent by someone else sending mails as “you”. I’ve seen it happen, through mails (from hotmail) and not with messenger. But since messenger is just an extension of hotmail, the spamming process must be very close. I can’t remember how it works exactly, at some point you receive a mail from someone you really know, with a link or attachment that once clicked does the job of resending spam to everyone in your contact list. Again, hotmail and messenger share a common contact list.

edit: don’t look for malware either, there’s nothing on the computer :wink: the issue is server related.

9

Great advice, turns out that a deletion of her original account and a setup of a new account sorted the problem.

Many thanks toLogos

10

you’re welcome :wink: