[rdethomas]

I get dozens of emails in my in-box that I did not send. They are all undeliverable emails and most say within the retuned message "relaying denied from this location." The sender and recipient are unknown to me. Is my PC being used to forward spam and, if so, how can I stop this?

[Byteman]

Hi, About the easiest and quickest thing to do is get a new email addy, give it out to your friends/contacts, and ask your ISP for help getting rid of the old addy.

Some won't help with spam at all, some do. First thing to do is ask for help from them.

For programs like Gmail, create a new account and switch to the new email address.

Even if malware is present-and removed.... your email addy is or was passed around, so the problem is not likely to stop for months and months if at all, on its own.

http://northern-keyboard.blogspot.co...g-spoofed.html

http://www.mailsbroadcast.com/email....l.hijacked.htm

Here's the technical side of what to do:

http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/email_spoofing.html

[strouprob]

Just to explain relaying, if you are not sure what it is. Relaying refers to email being past from one email domain to another. Like if you are on Comcast and send a mail through your cox mail connection, relaying will stop that on the Comcast side. The reason for this is that the Comcast domain does not want to proxy spam or any mail for that fact to another mail server on another domain. If mail is being returned that you did not send, that means you have picked up a virus that is using your computer to disseminate spam to other computers. I have seen this in business set ups where people want to send cox mail when they are currently on a comcast network.

[Byteman]

You should check for spy/adware/malware on your computer to rule out that you have one of the common spam-senders...

We can do that here, if you like...

Though, it sounds more like your address was picked up from another computer that is infected, and is being used as the info in the links I posted tells you.

Whether or not relaying stops it, you still get the notices.

If you would like us to check your computer do this:


Let's have you post a log from Hijackthis and maybe we can spot anything out of place:
go to Click here to download HJTsetup.exe

• Click "Download the Hijackthis Installer" link in blue.
• Save HJTsetup.exe to your desktop.
• Double click on the HJTsetup.exe icon on your desktop.
• By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Hijack This.
• Continue to click Next in the setup dialogue boxes until you get to the Select Additional Tasks dialogue.
• Put a check by Create a desktop icon then click Next again.
• Continue to follow the rest of the prompts from there.
• At the final dialogue box click Finish and it will launch Hijack This.
• Click on the Do a system scan and save a log file button. It will scan and then save the log and then the log will open in Notepad.
• Click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" to copy the entire contents of the log.
• Paste the log in your next reply.
• DO NOT have Hijack This fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.

Please also do this:

• Open Hijack This and click on the "Open the Misc Tools section" button.
• Click on the "Open Uninstall Manager" button.
• Click the "Save List" button. After you click the "Save List" button, you will be asked where to save the file. Pick a place to save it then the list should open in notepad.
• Copy and paste that list here in your reply

Another good thing to do is an online scan-- these check for all kinds of malware, not just virii- choose one, make sure you pick to scan all hard drives (entire computer) and save the results and post them.

Housecall online scan:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en...security_tools

Or this one:

Kaspersky online full scan

• Please go HERE and click Free Online Scanner
• Read and Accept the Agreement
• You will be promted to install an ActiveX component from Kaspersky, Click Yes.
• If you see a Windows dialog asking if you want to install this software, click the Install button.
• The program will launch and then begin downloading the latest definition files,
• When the "Update progress" line changes to "Ready" and the "NEXT ->" button becomes available, please click on it.
• Click on the Scan Settings button, and in the next window select the Extended database, and click Ok.
• Under "Please select a target to scan:", click My Computer to start the scan.
• When the scan is finished, click the "Save as Text" button, and save the file as kavscan.txt to your Desktop, close the Kaspersky On-line Scanner window.
• Copy and Paste the contents of the on line scanner results into a Reply here in your thread, along with a new HJT log and log from any other scans you run.

[strouprob]

Have you resolved this issue yet?