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| Thread ID: 73295 | 2006-10-14 11:19:00 | Lots of 'undelivered mail' spam in Inbox | rhen (11295) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 491377 | 2006-10-14 11:19:00 | A lot of the spam I'm getting in my inbox recently is of the 'Returned mail', 'Undelivered Mail returned to sender', 'Delivery failure' type. Is this a new ploy on the part of the spammers or is my PC infected with some sort of mass mailer worm/virus? If it is, how do I identify and remove it? The PC runs 24/7 on a broadband connection. I have, and regulary update and run scans with AdAware, Spybot and AVG. I also have ZoneAlarm as a firewall. Thanks for any suggestions or solutions. |
rhen (11295) | ||
| 491378 | 2006-10-14 12:11:00 | Welcome to PressF1 rhen. It's possible you've encountered the Swen worm, which spread rapidly worldwide in emails in September 2003. though not heard of much nowadays. The "undelivered mail" message was one of its variants (The other was a replica of a Microsoft Update page - one of the earliest fakes of the type which now copy banking websites.) It's important NOT to open these messages - just delete. My own experience was that I didn't get infected, as my anti-virus deleted the nasty. (As hopefully yours should have done). But the emails continued for some time & there was no remedy for that. There is a disinfection tool on Symantec's website, together with information which should help you decide if this is your problem. www.f-secure.com Try it & post back for more help later if you need it. Other more experienced members than me may be able to give you other options tomorrow. Edit: Now I can't get that link to work myself.. and at this late hour, the brain won't show me my error. So I suggest you check out the Symantec home page & track Swen down on the site. |
Laura (43) | ||
| 491379 | 2006-10-14 18:45:00 | It is more likely to be spammers sending mail with your address in the from field of the email. As a result you get all the undelivered mail as mail servers around the world think it was you who originated the email. It is quite common at the moment and there is not a lot you can do about it apart from changing your email address. |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 491380 | 2006-10-14 22:49:00 | That's interesting, Safari. I wondered about that possibility after making last night's posting. One more spam nuisance we have no control over if we're in the Address Book of an incautious friend or relative - or found by a random search.... Grrrrr!!! Now that spam has rapidly risen to half of world emails, how long do you think it will take for enough governments to actually prosecute spammers to fix the mess? I assume business would lead in requesting that, as things which affect profit are taken more seriously than simple annoyances for home users. Getting Nigeria, Russia, the Balkans & China to act might be the hard part... |
Laura (43) | ||
| 491381 | 2006-10-14 23:35:00 | Cheers Laura, the removal tool didn't find any evidence of W32.Swen.A@mm infection. I think you may be right Safari. Most of the delivery failure notices are to a domain name I own which is featured on a single page website I've set up for my wife's business i.e. contact details, business hours etc. Do you have any suggestions on decreasing the vulnerability of 'publishing' e-mail addresses on websites, so unscrupulous folk can't hijack them? Thanks again. |
rhen (11295) | ||
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