Expert: James Filmer - 8/24/2010

Question
QUESTION: I run Windows XP with the Comodo firewall and AVG antivirus software. Anyway, I'm having a problem with my computer. The main thing is that it sometimes sends out bogus emails. I think they all come from my yahoo email account. Recently I went to the symantec website and ran their tests without picking up anything important. I also ran a scan by the AVG anti virus software and the Lavasoft Ad-aware.

I have a couple of problems/questions. I'll lay out the list and you can deal with whatever you want.

1) The biggest issue is the bogus email. Any idea what I could do about this?

2) For some reason I seem to be picking up more spyware in my cookies than in the past. The lavasoft will take care of this if I run a scan, but I'm wondering if there is a better way.

3) Do you think it would make any sense for me to get one of these registry cleaner programs. The computer has 18 processes running and who knows what most of them are.

John


ANSWER: John,

Called Spoofing, you might be able to do something about it but it depends. You should at least change your password.

Following are discussions about your problem that should give you a better understanding of what you're dealing with:
http://www.computing.net/answers/security/rougue-emails-from-my-e-address/5653.h
http://www.computing.net/answers/security/yahoo-email-virus/24527.html
http://getsatisfaction.com/yahoo/topics/something_is_emailing_my_yahoo_address_b
http://goldage.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90833
http://ask-leo.com/someones_sending_from_my_email_address_how_do_i_stop_them.htm

2. You can add additional layers of security with Superantispyware and/or a-squared free and Spybot Search and Destroy. Online scans are fine too, but you usually need to install an app to remove whatever you find.

If you're using IE, try another browser like Mozilla Firefox browser or others that allow you to accept or reject cookies "For Session Only" meaning they expire after you leave the site.

A good temp file and cookie cleaner like CCleaner or EasyCleaner can also help. Many of those cookies will be removed before you run an Ad-Aware scan, removing unnecessary temp files at the same time.

3. As far as registry cleaners, they remove unnecessary registry items but don't tell you anything about running processes. This article reveals some excellent info about determining what's running:
http://ask-leo.com/whats_this_program_running_on_my_machine.html

There are a few fine applications (use a search engine for others) that can help you:

http://download.cnet.com/What-s-Running/3000-2094_4-10256718.html

Online: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/fileinspect-identify-processes-running-computer/

About your Firewall, see http://www.firewallguide.com/software.htm (also at enrgy21.com). It might have something to do with picking up more spyware.







---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The email is a couple years old, although I am not sure if your response is new. Anyway, the computer was overdue for some work, so I got CCleaner and ran it. I ended up with some minor snags, but the startup time is greatly reduced.

Thanks for the response.

Answer
Hi John,

Thanks for the update - feel free to rate.
Had to remove a broken Enrgy21.com URL (a page was removed) link in my original reply - it came up in search engine results. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and if you have any further issues, just let me know.