[uawalker]

Messages are being sent from my Hotmail e-mail account with the Subject line: good game, I've played for a moment for free. Does anyone know what this is? virus?

[TechOutsider]

Ignore if it is from someone unknown. And delete. And if possible, add to blocked senders.

[dan_mccartney]

They are being sent from his email. I would change your password. Have you done that yet?

[Alan0605]

i would scan your computer for keyloggers first before changing your password, no point in changing your password if you've got a keylogger which is just going take your password.

[uawalker]

What's a keylogger?
I did run a virus scan last night and it said it identified a couple of things. I know you're not supposed to open suspicious attachments, etc., but the e-mails that were sent from my e-mail address would not look suspicious to my friends, so I'm guessing they opened the message. Do you think that would have spread this virus to their computers?
And last but not least, could this have anything to do with the fact that I leave the computer on all the time?

[Alan0605]

A keylogger is a program that generally sits in the background of your processes undetectable or posing as a legit program, which records the keys you press (e.g passwords, account details etc) and then most often than not sends a message to the program's creator with what it records.

[lunarlander]

This can be one of 3 things I think. 1) It could be that they know your password, via a keylogger perhaps, or simply by looking over your shoulder. 2) The hackers may know of a weakness in Hotmail and exploited it. 3) It may be a weakness in MSN messenger and they exploited that.

Leaving your machine on all the time does give an attacker more opportunity to attack it. Especially if you have internet listening application open all the time ( like MSN messenger) I have my PC on all the time too, but I let it hibernate.

[TechOutsider]

What anti virus did you use? Try Clamwin AV... It can detect joke and criminal programs, such as keyloggers.

However, this could be a number of other things, such as design flaws with Hotmail and MSN Messenger. Or, maybe you just forgot to sign out :O