Hotmail users...

[ChrisM]

hey community, long time, just thought i'd share..

got this email the other day..
***Link removed due to report - Not wishing to share email address***

It says that someone sent it to me, after me sending it to someone. Im not blaming the person named in the picture, i dont know how/why it happened, but apparently its sent to all my contacts, (fortunately i dont use this account for important things).

***The link in the email is infected*** Just a heads up for anyone using hotmail

[Lasse]

It's something your hotmail does, if you have a virus for example, or something like that. My hotmail did it at some point, but after i cleaned my pc it stopped.

[ChrisM]

Immediately after opening the link, MSE detected a serious threat bla bla.quickly d/c internet, scanned, removed etcetc. So this laptop is infected?

[Fatteeh]

I actually got one of those with your name in the title, Chris

[Speed]

solution , never open links in such messages

[Malibu]

Old lol, hotmail just sucks.

[KaraK [T]]

I never click links in emails without any other content. Except when I know they're safe.

[Johan.]

Thanks for not making my email-adres public Chris......

Just change your password (and secret question), and you won't sent those emails anymore. Mostly just replying with the email, so the person sending the spam knows it. Some people choose to ignore it, and some don't.

[Bradd]

Whats with the 'Hannah Montana Games' in the favourites tab?

[Tommer]

My AOL Email has been doing that recently, can't change the password on it either because I can't remember the security question :/

[Zipppy]

A lot of my friends had their accounts compromised because of this sort of thing, I just ignore them, or temporarily block the contact and notify them in person, or via FaceBook.

They all fell for the "check who blocked you on MSN" emails.

[Nitros]

[X] Hotmail
[X] XP
[X] Internet Explorer
[X] Replying on Microsoft 'antivirus' measures
[X] Doesn't know not to click an email link they don't know about

= Not surprised...

I mean, I'm not trying to be a *Removed* or anything - so please don't take this as an aggressive tone - its hard to be firm without being too harsh when typing, but this will keep happening unless you understand why you got the virus. And other people may find it helpful.

Firstly, seriously - have you not heard just about every single computing FAQ/Teacher/Anyone-who-has-a-computer telling you not to open links in emails you don't know about? Its got no subject, and its just a link. Don't click it.
Secondly, get a decent browser. I understand you may not have the money to upgrade your OS to windows 7 - so that is forgiveable, but IE 8? You can't get IE 9, because Microsoft gave up on XP - so go for firefox/chrome/opera. Hell, even use safari for windows over IE 8.
Third, get some sort of semi-decent anti virus software. If it was Microsoft security essentials that picked it up before anything else, then you don't have one. Something kind nod32 or kaspersky would be good, but seeing as you havn't bought windows 7 - I assume you would prefer to go free - so grab something like Avast! free, or maybe AVG free. If your going to be clicking on random links, then there is a change these will stop bad sites (but I wouldn't reply on it)
Fourth, hotmail used to be great - but all of those crappy emails are the reason I switched to gMail. Since I switched (couple of years ago) I can count the number of spam emails I have had with one finger. Its just better at getting rid of spam.

Hope this helps.

[McGherkin]

Wise words from Nitros there.

[ChrisM]

Nitros, appreciate your feedback. All of it I know already and the short answer, its not my laptop. I know that the laptop was indeed infected before myself using it etc, because the owner goes on dodgy sites. The last part, about hotmail, once you get used to 1 account its easy to keep it bla bla (it must be over 6 years old now), but yea shall take that last part into consideration.

PS, my laptop is being shipped over this week So yea, back to w7, ie9 etc. A bit off-topic, but what free AV would you recommend for a w7/ie9 user?

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E: I have previously used MSE for 2 years and never had any problems..

[Nitros]

(2011-12-12 09:16)ChrisM Wrote:  PS, my laptop is being shipped over this week So yea, back to w7, ie9 etc. A bit off-topic, but what free AV would you recommend for a w7/ie9 user?

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E: I have previously used MSE for 2 years and never had any problems..

Different people have different opinions on that one. I use avast, hasn't let me down.

But in reference to your last comment, if you use your computer sensibly, you really shouldn't need an anti-virus. Almost anything an antivirus can protect you against, scan common sense.
Saying that, however, it's always good to have one as a backup, especially if you do any kind of online shopping on your computer.

But that's just my opinion tbh.

[[TC]»Elmo«]

MSSE (on W7 at least) is actually quite comparable to much of the free AV software now.
Yes, it recently flagged Chrome (or something like that, I forget exactly) as malicious and removed it, but the paid versions of Norton, AVG and McAffee (twice) have flagged important system files as malicious and broken Windows as a result.

As Nitros said, if you can't use IE9, don't use IE at all.
And remember, if you have XP, you only have just over 2 years left (of your currently 11 year old OS) before support runs out and it becomes a virus ridden hell hole.

Oh, and make sure you keep your PDF reader and Flash up to date, as that's how nearly all drive by malware gets on your system.