Mail bouncing...!

[Fozzer]

Hello Lads...!

..another problemo... ...!

Recently my incoming Mail box has been filling up with dozens of the following similar messages....

"Mail Delivery Sub-system: Returned mail...."
...etc, etc...

As well as the above actually in my Mail Box, I am also receiving up to 500 spam mails each day, filtered out and put in the "Spam" box, by my Service Provider.

Norton and Zone Alarm checks my Browser/Mail automatically, and I run Adaware regularly to remove the usual dross!

A Norton scan for Virus's, etc, doesn't turn up anything..!

Any idea why I am suddenly getting all this returned mail, which I haven't sent out in the first place...?

Something has recently happened... ..... ....!

Cheers all...!

Many thanks...

Paul.

Service Provider = Freeserve.
Browser = Mozilla Firefox.
Mail Box = Freeserve and Outlook Express.

[Craig.]

these are also spam Mr Foz. Its one of the ways round the filters.

[Fozzer]

these are also spam Mr Foz. Its one of the ways round the filters.

Hi Craig...!

...the funny thing is....the Spam and Returned Mail, etc, that I get has suddenly leaped from nothing a day to....500+ a day...!!!
...during the past week...!

It almost seems as though I am receiving mail which is bouncing all round the Internet...!!

Even though I filter out the "Sender" and "Message details", it still gets through to my Incoming Mail Box.

The Returned Mail messages are coming from all sorts of random sources....some containing advertisments...?

I seem to have picked up something nasty in the last few days to cause all this...!!!

Note: I dont open, or read any of them....just in case...!

Cheers Craig...!

Paul.

[Craig.]

Hi Paul..
The only thing i can think of then, would be one somehow was opened that sent back a message to the main server confirming your inbox was open for business?

[Fozzer]

Hi Craig....!

I'll keep an eye on this for a few days, see if it gets any worse... ...!
May have to E-Mail Freeserve to find out what is going on...?

Cheers Craig...!

Paul.

It's bleedin' annoying...it takes ages to empty my mail box of all this cr*p every day....
...and it BUILDS UP daily... ... ... ...!

[eno]

Ahhhhhhh the returned mail scam.  I wouldn't just check your inbox ...... but your outbox too ..... You may be unwittingly sending these mails out to somone else Paul.

A lot of these "undelivered" mails originate from hyjacked accounts and some of them contain the means to hyjack your accounts too. Just delete them, never open them and keep your fingers crossed that you havent been hyjacked too.

[Fozzer]

Ahhhhhhh the returned mail scam.  I wouldn't just check your inbox ...... but your outbox too ..... You may be unwittingly sending these mails out to somone else Paul.

A lot of these "undelivered" mails originate from hyjacked accounts and some of them contain the means to hyjack your accounts too. Just delete them, never open them and keep your fingers crossed that you havent been hyjacked too.

Hi eno...!

I've just emptied my In-box, my Out-Box, my Sent-box, my Draft-box, my Shoe-box, my Snot-box, etc, etc.....
...see what 'appens now...!
LOL...!

Paul.

[JBaymore]

Fozzer,

This is a well known phenomona.

Many of the virus programs look in the victim's computer for email addresses.  The virus program then sends out scads of virus infected emails that APPEAR to be coming from one of the email addresses that was located in the poor victim's address book.

If YOUR address happens to be in the victim's address book.... then a bunch of people are getting emails that APPEAR to be coming from you..... but they aren't.  This often leads them to open the emails... cause it is a familiar name.  This further spreads the infection.

Then when the receiving end's of these bogus mails virus stopper prevents the mail with the virus from going thru... the message gets sent back to the origanator of the message...... which the automated programs think is YOU.  But it isn't.  But YOU get all the "retuirned mail" crap.

So if you are SURE that your computer is not the one responsible....... just delete all that "bounce" and "returned" crap and wait til the infection subsides.  It can take weeks.  BTW... if you look at the addresses that the stuff is returned FROM.... if they start to look like LOTS of names in YOUR address book...... I'd be checking my own computer for problems again it I were you  ;).

best,

.....................john

[Fozzer]

Hi John...!

Thanks for the reply....!

Out of interest, one thing I NEVER do is to STORE addresses in my Mail Box....
All my addresses I keep in a separate paper notepad and type them in when necessary.
I do this to prevent any virus's that I may pick up from sending my virus to anyone else via E-Mail address folder.

I've just checked my incoming mail and I'm getting returned mail at the rate of one every few minutes...!!!

All this is rather strange because I rarely, if ever, send out any E-Mail via Outlook Express..!
All my mailing is done via SimV PM's...

It's now a constant battle to delete them all...!

Cheers all...!

Paul...slowly getting burried under returned mail... ...!

[Hyperion2]

Paul, run the normal gambit of security precautions, Norton, Spybot, etc...

But then also check out "The Cleaner" by Moosoft (Google it).  The only time I ever had a real problem, I had inadvertently picked up a Trojan somewhere that was sending TONS of spam out without my knowledge...to the point where my ISP nixed my connection until I called them to see what was up.  They're the ones who recommended it.

It's payware, but you get a free trial.  Run that and see if maybe there's something hiding in there that you're not seeing.

[Fozzer]

Thanks Hype...!

Ran "The Cleaner", found a few Trojans, (Adware):

Newdotnet.
Gator.

One of the Newdotnet trojans was associated with "FSAutostart"..... ... ... ...!!!

I think I have managed to quarrantine all of them, and deleted them....
My In-Box so far seems to be getting less Returned Mail now...
...fingers crossed...!!

Paul.

P.S. Interestingly, although I have paid loads of money, (

[Fozzer]

Hello all...!
With Scott's, (Hyperion), help, I finally managed to get rid of the "Trojans" affecting my e-mails with his recommended program...

...."The Cleaner" from...>>>

http://www.moosoft.com/

The two Trojans which were giving me serious problems were....
Newdotnet.
Gator.

The cleaner found both of them and successfully deleted them both.

No more problems at the moment....
...until the next time... ...!
LOL...!

Paul.

P.S. What really annoys me is the fact that I spend

[Corsair Freak]

Hi Paul,

I heard somewhere that Anti-Virus programs do a better job while running in 'safe mode' I can't speak from expierence, as... I don't have any AV Programs on my computer (I'm not hooked up to the internet)... just a thought.


Brandon

[Jared]

Hey Paul, sounds to me like something similar to what my grandmother was experiencing in regard to the returned mail.

What happened was she sent a message to an address that didn't exist anymore, so then outlook express tried over and over to send it out unsuccessfully, once I got it out of the outbox it went away...

As suggested above though it sounds like you have more than just that going on in your mailbox!

[Fozzer]

Hey Paul, sounds to me like something similar to what my grandmother was experiencing in regard to the returned mail.

What happened was she sent a message to an address that didn't exist anymore, so then outlook express tried over and over to send it out unsuccessfully, once I got it out of the outbox it went away...

As suggested above though it sounds like you have more than just that going on in your mailbox!

Hi Jared....!
...got it sorted now with "The Cleaner"... ....!
They have now ceased after a few days.

It was due to having two Trojan virus's hidden deep in my 'puter.....Newdotnet and Gator...!!!
These affect your/my incoming/outgoing mail....
...nasty buggars...!!

Cheers Mate...!

Paul.