scoutabout
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2006
- Messages
- 1,568
Riddle me this, batmen and batwomen - People in my AOL address book have started reporting getting spam from my AOL email address.
The interesting thing is that if I delete the address book content or export it to a csv file and store it locally, the outgoing spam stops. Also, the address book is set to autopopulate so if I send an email to anyone, that address gets added to the book. And, sure enough, in a day or two, that address will get a spam from my AOL address. So, no address book entries, no spam.
Curiouser and curiouser, I discovered that the spam goes out even if my computer is off. I discovered this particular characteristic last week when I emailed a file from my AOL address to my Blackberry. This of course auto populated the AOL address book with my BB address. At the time it was the only address left in my AOL book.
A day or two later, just as I was walking in the door from work, my BB went off, indicating a mail from my AOL address. It was a spam link for Viagara or something. At the time I was walking into my home office, looking at my desk machine sitting there off. Wha??
Antivirus and scans like Malwarebytes show nothing on the home machine. The spam will start no matter what machine I send an AOL email from (work, home, laptop, whatever). As long as the outgoing address gets autopopulated into that AOL address book, that address will get spammed. This would seem to rule out a virus on my home computer that waits for new address book entries, then fires them off somewhere to be added to some big spamming process.
So, does this mean the problem is central to AOL's online address books? It isn't resident anywhere on any local machine as far as I can tell. Ideas, anyone? Has anyone heard of this particular behaviour before?
Frankly, I'm sick of this address anyway and would love to retire it. It's also more than a bit inconvenient to re-import the book in order to send a message, then delete the addresses again. It's the prospect and hassle of letting several hundred people know it's no longer in use that has me dragging my feet.
The interesting thing is that if I delete the address book content or export it to a csv file and store it locally, the outgoing spam stops. Also, the address book is set to autopopulate so if I send an email to anyone, that address gets added to the book. And, sure enough, in a day or two, that address will get a spam from my AOL address. So, no address book entries, no spam.
Curiouser and curiouser, I discovered that the spam goes out even if my computer is off. I discovered this particular characteristic last week when I emailed a file from my AOL address to my Blackberry. This of course auto populated the AOL address book with my BB address. At the time it was the only address left in my AOL book.
A day or two later, just as I was walking in the door from work, my BB went off, indicating a mail from my AOL address. It was a spam link for Viagara or something. At the time I was walking into my home office, looking at my desk machine sitting there off. Wha??
Antivirus and scans like Malwarebytes show nothing on the home machine. The spam will start no matter what machine I send an AOL email from (work, home, laptop, whatever). As long as the outgoing address gets autopopulated into that AOL address book, that address will get spammed. This would seem to rule out a virus on my home computer that waits for new address book entries, then fires them off somewhere to be added to some big spamming process.
So, does this mean the problem is central to AOL's online address books? It isn't resident anywhere on any local machine as far as I can tell. Ideas, anyone? Has anyone heard of this particular behaviour before?
Frankly, I'm sick of this address anyway and would love to retire it. It's also more than a bit inconvenient to re-import the book in order to send a message, then delete the addresses again. It's the prospect and hassle of letting several hundred people know it's no longer in use that has me dragging my feet.