M
Mark S. Milley
Hi all -
I'm a bit frustrated right now. I have contracted a virus.
Let me start this email by saying that I am a Microsoft Certified
Solutions Developer; I know my way around a machine. I've also
recovered from quite a few viruses in my life. This one is different.
Secondly, please don't answer with the obvious, and please read the
full email. Try to clear your mind of all known viruses and accept
what I'm telling you is true. I'm asking you to please do that because
as I've searched the web for a solution to this problem, I've seen a
lot of would-be geek heroes abusing the people who are reporting the
problem and coming up with off the cuff half-baked answers that would
have helped if it was some other virus that came out in the last five
years.
This is something NEW. Seriously, I think it's Red-alert time for you
folks at MS who might be reading this.
From what I can tell in my research, this virus started THIS YEAR, and
there are more reports of it in the wild in the past two months.
I'm running on a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista and Outlook 2007.
OneCare is always running, as is Windows Firewall. I host my domain at
Google, which gives me an advantage in diagnosing this problem.
Okay, here is what is going on:
When I issue a send/receive command from outlook (and only then),
Outlook 2007 sends virus emails via though my email account. This IS
the trigger.
In the status bar, Outlook reports the number of emails it's sending
(usually around 50).
However, these emails do NOT show up in the outbox or the sent items
box in the application.
These emails DO show up in the sent box of the account itself (i'm
using IMAP) when I look at it via the web client.
My account was not "hacked"; these are not being sent from a seperate
account. These are being sent via Outlook 2007. I know that these are
not coming from a remote location due to the exact timing of when the
emails get sent corresponding when I hit send/receive, and the fact
that my computer's name appears in the header of the emails.
These emails are NOT being sent to addresses in my outlook address
book; they seem to be coming out of some other database.
There are no unusual programs set to start up when windows starts
(msconfig). There are no odd macros or code inside of outlook. There
are no unusual add-ons active inside of outlook. OneCare's scans and
Malwarebytes have found nothing. I have shut off "receipt responses"
and this is not solve the problem.
This problem began this morning; I have not installed any programs or
received any virus warnings from onecare in the past week.
People have suggested that the problem may be a botnet or rootkit
infection, but have not provided answers on how to fix the problem. I
don't think this is the problem however, because, again, this is
happening exactly when I send an email through Outlook 2007. If I use
windows mail, it's fine.
I'm on the virge of just uninstalling Outlook 2007 and never using it
again.
Suggestions?
I'm a bit frustrated right now. I have contracted a virus.
Let me start this email by saying that I am a Microsoft Certified
Solutions Developer; I know my way around a machine. I've also
recovered from quite a few viruses in my life. This one is different.
Secondly, please don't answer with the obvious, and please read the
full email. Try to clear your mind of all known viruses and accept
what I'm telling you is true. I'm asking you to please do that because
as I've searched the web for a solution to this problem, I've seen a
lot of would-be geek heroes abusing the people who are reporting the
problem and coming up with off the cuff half-baked answers that would
have helped if it was some other virus that came out in the last five
years.
This is something NEW. Seriously, I think it's Red-alert time for you
folks at MS who might be reading this.
From what I can tell in my research, this virus started THIS YEAR, and
there are more reports of it in the wild in the past two months.
I'm running on a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista and Outlook 2007.
OneCare is always running, as is Windows Firewall. I host my domain at
Google, which gives me an advantage in diagnosing this problem.
Okay, here is what is going on:
When I issue a send/receive command from outlook (and only then),
Outlook 2007 sends virus emails via though my email account. This IS
the trigger.
In the status bar, Outlook reports the number of emails it's sending
(usually around 50).
However, these emails do NOT show up in the outbox or the sent items
box in the application.
These emails DO show up in the sent box of the account itself (i'm
using IMAP) when I look at it via the web client.
My account was not "hacked"; these are not being sent from a seperate
account. These are being sent via Outlook 2007. I know that these are
not coming from a remote location due to the exact timing of when the
emails get sent corresponding when I hit send/receive, and the fact
that my computer's name appears in the header of the emails.
These emails are NOT being sent to addresses in my outlook address
book; they seem to be coming out of some other database.
There are no unusual programs set to start up when windows starts
(msconfig). There are no odd macros or code inside of outlook. There
are no unusual add-ons active inside of outlook. OneCare's scans and
Malwarebytes have found nothing. I have shut off "receipt responses"
and this is not solve the problem.
This problem began this morning; I have not installed any programs or
received any virus warnings from onecare in the past week.
People have suggested that the problem may be a botnet or rootkit
infection, but have not provided answers on how to fix the problem. I
don't think this is the problem however, because, again, this is
happening exactly when I send an email through Outlook 2007. If I use
windows mail, it's fine.
I'm on the virge of just uninstalling Outlook 2007 and never using it
again.
Suggestions?