Outlook Contacts Compromised?

June 19, 2013 9:09 AM

I've started getting emails "from" people in my contacts list. The email is from their name, but with an email address that is not theirs and is different each time. I have an address with a local internet provider, not gmail or yahoo. Do I have a virus my antivirus hasn't caught? How can I fix it?
posted by summerstorm to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

It could still be that the compromise is at your local isp's server and not on your PC. First thing I'd change my email password. Then I'd run a scan on my local machine with an anti-virus other than my main one.

This might well not be a right assessment of what's wrong and the solution might be more complicated. Its how I'd start though. You might google your ISPs name along with malware or 'email hacked' and see if anyone is reporting similar issues anywhere.
posted by logonym at 9:27 AM on June 19, 2013

I get exactly the same thing, and I eventually figured out that all the names used to contact me are people I am friends with on facebook. I think someone has scanned facebook for account with lax privacy settings and then used the connections they discover between to send spam that uses the real names of contacts. If this looks like what is happening with you, I wouldn't worry about it being a virus, but might drop a note to people on facebook to check their privacy settings.
posted by procrastination at 9:44 AM on June 19, 2013

Best answer: Something similar happened to my Dad, and based on the answers in the AskMe I posted, I think Facebook was the most likely culprit.
posted by amarynth at 9:53 AM on June 19, 2013

This has happened to me repleatedly in the last day or so - getting e-mails from people similar to the ones you've gotten.

I don't think they're Facebook related this time because one of the people this hit has a different Facebook name (i.e, one came from "Jane Doe" and her user name on Facebook is "Jane Doe-or Smith"). I think they're yahoo groups related.
posted by Lucinda at 10:18 AM on June 19, 2013