receiving delivery failure e-mails

Out of the blue I'm receiving e-mails that say there was a failure to deliver.
I am receiving about 10 per minute(!), thousands of e-mails saying delivery
failure, all with attachments. Examples are "From" mailer-daemon,
, maildelivery subsystem, etc. I have not sent these
messages, nor do I know of these people. Has there been an identifiable
virus or trojan? Can anyone help please?

One of two possibilities:

1 - Your computer has been hijacked and is being used to send out spam; or

2 - Your e-mail address is being used by a spammer as the reply-to
address for their spam.

The solution to (1) is to remove the malware, and the solution to (2) is
to get a new email address. I wish I could be more optimistic.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

sabrina wrote:
Out of the blue I'm receiving e-mails that say there was a failure to deliver.
I am receiving about 10 per minute(!), thousands of e-mails saying delivery
failure, all with attachments. Examples are "From" mailer-daemon,
, maildelivery subsystem, etc. I have not sent these
messages, nor do I know of these people. Has there been an identifiable
virus or trojan? Can anyone help please?

Listen, I speak Polish and my English is not very good but I have only
10 years old...

Love Nastia!!!

PS Sorry but I not understand everything

Siaśkowate napisał(a):
Listen, I speak Polish and my English is not very good but I have only
10 years old...

Love Nastia!!!

PS Sorry but I not understand everything

How do I get rid of the malware? So far I've run AdAware, AVG, SpyBot,
Norton, Registry Mechanic, and nothing has been identified.

"Ted Zieglar" wrote:

One of two possibilities:

1 - Your computer has been hijacked and is being used to send out spam; or

2 - Your e-mail address is being used by a spammer as the reply-to
address for their spam.

The solution to (1) is to remove the malware, and the solution to (2) is
to get a new email address. I wish I could be more optimistic.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

sabrina wrote:
Out of the blue I'm receiving e-mails that say there was a failure to deliver.
I am receiving about 10 per minute(!), thousands of e-mails saying delivery
failure, all with attachments. Examples are "From" mailer-daemon,
, maildelivery subsystem, etc. I have not sent these
messages, nor do I know of these people. Has there been an identifiable
virus or trojan? Can anyone help please?

If they haven't identified any malware on your computer, then there
probably isn't any, in which case Ted's second possibility is more
likely to be the cause. You may be able to construct some message rules
to delete most of the messages if you can identify common features,
though these are likely also to delete any genuine messages about
non-delivery of mails that you really have sent.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

sabrina wrote:
How do I get rid of the malware? So far I've run AdAware, AVG,
SpyBot,
Norton, Registry Mechanic, and nothing has been identified.

"Ted Zieglar" wrote:

One of two possibilities:

1 - Your computer has been hijacked and is being used to send out
spam; or

2 - Your e-mail address is being used by a spammer as the reply-to
address for their spam.

The solution to (1) is to remove the malware, and the solution to
(2) is
to get a new email address. I wish I could be more optimistic.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

sabrina wrote:
Out of the blue I'm receiving e-mails that say there was a
failure to deliver. I am receiving about 10 per minute(!),
thousands of e-mails saying delivery failure, all with
attachments. Examples are "From" mailer-daemon,
, maildelivery subsystem, etc. I have not
sent these messages, nor do I know of these people. Has there
been an identifiable virus or trojan? Can anyone help please?

Richard J gave you good advice.

I would add: Don't be so sure your computer is free of malware. Malware
is getting more and more difficult to find, and you often have to try
many different scanners until you're able to identify just what's on
your computer. Sometimes, you never do, especially if it's a rootkit.

But if nothing turns up, it may well be the reply-to problem.

Here are some things I do to minimize my chances of getting caught in a
reply-to situation: I only use my 'real' e-mail address (the one I got
from my ISP) for correspondence with family and friends. For everything
else I use another email address, from one of the many free e-mail
services. If my 'free' inbox fills with spam or gets hijacked I just
forget about it and open another free account. I tell my family and
friends to leave me off any group e-mails - because I don't want my
e-mail address to be forwarded all over cyberspace - unless they're
prepared to hide all recipients' address in Bcc.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

Richard J. wrote:
If they haven't identified any malware on your computer, then there
probably isn't any, in which case Ted's second possibility is more
likely to be the cause. You may be able to construct some message rules
to delete most of the messages if you can identify common features,
though these are likely also to delete any genuine messages about
non-delivery of mails that you really have sent.