killing hotmail

[PXW]

Mrs PXW has an old hotmail account that she no longer uses - but every now and then it sends out spam. She's been on the site to close the account down a couple of times, but it doesn't seem to go. Is there anything obvious she's doing wrong - or being microsoft are these just impossible to kill?

 

[Sp!ke]

It sounds like her password has been compromised allowing a spammer access.

She should set a new (complicated) password to prevent misuse and then forget all about it.

 

[Spinal]

There are three options...

- Her password has been compromised (as Spike suggested). Changing her password will stop further access.

- If she uses Outlook or some other "local" mail client (as a pose to hotmail web access, which from the fact you mention site I assume she uses) the machine is infected with malware that is sending the spam. (in your case, this seems unlikely)

- Someone is sending spam with a spoofed "from" field (extremely easy). Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to prevent this... with any email address/domain.

IIRC, hotmail closes your account after 90 days or so of inactivity. As such, if she logs in, deletes ALL he contacts and subsequently changes her password to something complex then abandons it for a while, the account will be closed.

My guess is that she logged in to a phishing site, quite a few target hotmail/window live messenger. One of the more creative ones tricked people into believing they could find out who blocked them... and all you had to do was give away your credentials!

M.

 

[BTB 500]

As above, most likely is that the email address has been 'harvested' in the past and is being used as a spoof sender. So the emails aren't actually coming from hotmail at all.

 

[jimti]

As above, most likely is that the email address has been 'harvested' in the past and is being used as a spoof sender. So the emails aren't actually coming from hotmail at all.

I think it is about time the spam filters could detect this and block them before they arrive in the in box.. It can't be that hard surely

 

[Spinal]

It's incredibly hard actually...

think of it this way - anyone can put a letter into a post-box, and sign your name on it... the recipient has no way of knowing who REALLY sent it, unless they analyse the content (heuristic analysis) or handwriting (harder on digital format)... or maybe the postmark (IP address)....

but really; it's very very difficult.

There are many ways to mitigate it, but none is a golden bullet. My favorite is to set your (receiving) server to delay all messages from new senders. It bounces the email back to the sending server saying "try again later". For a valid sender, this isn't a problem as their server will automatically retry later. For a spammer, the delay is too costly, especially when summed to the millions of other emails sent out!

M.

 

[Colin_b]

Malware is a strong possibility. Download the MS malicious software removal tool -

Malicious Software Removal Tool | Protect Your Computer

to check.

 

[Rory]

T

- Someone is sending spam with a spoofed "from" field (extremely easy). Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to prevent this... with any email address/domain.

This happened with my first ever email account years ago and it was my only account at the time. It was just a nightmare and of course in those days many people didn't realise what was happening and so would sent me snotty emails - which just made the problem worse!

I switched to another account but the other one was still being used by spammers months later.

 

[jimti]

It's incredibly hard actually...

think of it this way - anyone can put a letter into a post-box, and sign your name on it... the recipient has no way of knowing who REALLY sent it, unless they analyse the content (heuristic analysis) or handwriting (harder on digital format)... or maybe the postmark (IP address)....

but really; it's very very difficult.

There are many ways to mitigate it, but none is a golden bullet. My favorite is to set your (receiving) server to delay all messages from new senders. It bounces the email back to the sending server saying "try again later". For a valid sender, this isn't a problem as their server will automatically retry later. For a spammer, the delay is too costly, especially when summed to the millions of other emails sent out!

M.

You couldn't do an idiots guide on how to do this could you?