Is my Contact List Safe????

I just received an email from an Electronics Company, advertising their
services.

All of the To: email addresses are from my Hotmail Contacts list - how can
this be?

I never send any email to all of my Contacts, and if I send a message to
more than one person, their email addresses always go in the BCC: not To:

Has someone found a way to hack my Contact list, or are my email address
lists being Sold??

Concerned,
--
Bryan Anslow

1. Don't use your real email address when posting to a public newsgroup.
It's inviting spam.

2. Someone may have got hold of your address book via malware. Do a thorough
check, following *all* of the steps at one of these web pages:

(All MS-MVP Sites)
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/darnit.html
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm

Unexplained computer behaviour may be caused by deceptive software.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827315

So how did I get infected anyway?
For quite a few people it's by installing programs like Messenger Plus,
whose ads for malware don't identify the malware as such and try to convince
you that you owe it to the author. See also:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971
Don't ever do a "default" install of anything. Always choose Custom and see
what else is being carried along. Don't install any extras you're not sure
of.

[I don't know who the original author of that advice is (PA Bear?), but
thanks anyway]
--
Noel

"Bryan Anslow" <bryan_anslow@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EBFAFCB8-5795-4CC5-87FC-F99E2CC0D18B@xxxxxx

To add to Noel's input..
The To addresses in the suspicious email could be common to your address book or another persons address book with the same circle
of friends or addresses. Most likely cause is a compromised system and a high-jacking of an address book.

Perform all the necessary steps in Noel's post to ensure your system is malware and virus free.
Consider protecting any important data on separate media(external drive etc)

--
...winston
ms-mvp windows live mail


"Bryan Anslow" <bryan_anslow@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:EBFAFCB8-5795-4CC5-87FC-F99E2CC0D18B@xxxxxx

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8397A356-F2F3-4A86-B333-80E8355F4EB5@xxxxxx
Had you noticed that when the link includes the full CNAME, it stops being
clickable?
--
Noel

Also you may have posted on other websites/forums, and these newsgroups are
published online so email harvesting bots can obtain your address from any
number of sources.

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:28273B5D-AC09-4E94-8CE0-D96FAD40F80E@xxxxxx

Is it not clickable at your end in WLM ?

--
...winston
ms-mvp windows live mail


"Ildhund" <jnllb@xxxxxx> wrote

Yes...
As an example, the gmail address I use in this forum is a throw-away..it gets a fair share of junk, though Google actually does a
fair job of filtering the garbage from reaching the account's Inbox.

Though in the op's case, it would seem unusual to harvest the others addresses from newsgroups and consolidate only those common to
the op's address book and subsequently send in a single piece of spam to his inbox.
<cf. "All of the To: email addresses are from my Hotmail Contacts list - how can this be?"
--
...winston
ms-mvp windows live mail


"swarfega" <swarfega@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:6F69DCDD-FBC8-4CD2-8CF0-AB0C4A46C43F@xxxxxx

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A65A2B61-1D34-4FB6-8CA5-D6788FD0A11B@xxxxxx That URL is clickable for me. However, I've found that it often helps to
enclose such long
URLs in angle brackets when sending them, to help some newsreader programs
be able
to display them split into two or more lines, but still remember to keep all
of it together
when clicking on it. For example:

<http://www.microsoft.com.nsatc.net/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser&tid=3b419130-b579-4791-aa4a-676a7c611c4b&cat=en_US_9a2f4e3c-98e3-43ff-813f-915f9a7429e1&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1>

Yes..a suggestion I made awhile in this forum(iirc circa early March, the thread was titled Corruption in Hyperlinks or Hyperlink
Corruption or similar).

--
...winston
ms-mvp windows live mail


<robertmiles@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:exRz0azkIHA.748@xxxxxx
However, I've found that it often helps to enclose such long URLs in angle brackets

Sorry to be so late getting back on this one - I've been busy elsewhere. No,
now it's perfectly clickable once posted. I usually check before posting by
using PeterR's trick: compose reply, Ctrl + S, click on All Drafts and the
message appears in the reading pane. Links there, if properly formed, are
clickable and thus testable. For some reason, this one wasn't (like those
containing a "#" sometimes aren't) and I just guessed that the double TLD
between "//" and "/" was throwing the URL detection engine. I may test this
more robustly when I find a moment.
--
Noel

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A65A2B61-1D34-4FB6-8CA5-D6788FD0A11B@xxxxxx