Sudden virus infected emails and scams?

Question

I was lucky enough to have a Yahoo E-mail that at most got a spam mail once every 3-5 months. I am now getting email after email every day trying to scam me and trying to get viruses on my computer. I have been sent letters from banks which when I called them they said that they did not email me anything. They are now investigating this. I am getting one from Hallmark now that looks very legit with the Hallmark background but when I click the link to see the card my Avast Antivirus software starts giving me hundreds of warnings about viruses worms trojan horses etc. And these are all coming to my inbox not my spam folder. Why is this suddenly happening I have not used any information regarding my email account over the internet in a while so i've ruled that out.

I am just wondering weather I need to report this to the authority's?

Answer 1

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

http://download.cnet.com/SuperAntiSpyware-Free-Edition/3000-8022_4-10523889.html



Use free versions, scan one at a time. If not fixed, turn off system restore, run them again, if still not fixed, use hijackthis.com run a log, then have it analyzed, when sure it is removed, restart, turn system restore back on.

Answer 2

Hi, there could be many reasons for this. Could be a dictionary attack or sometimes ISP servers are hacked and they get the e-mail addresses. Another possibility is that a friend with your e-mail address in their contacts has their e-mail hacked. Lists of e-mail address are bought and sold online. Make sure you have a two way firewall or have outbound protection enabled if you have Vista.

Also, you should also use Malwarebytes and Superantispyware with Avast! as they work well together to provide maximum protection. This is extra advice, but make sure everything is patched. Right now exploitation of out of date Windows, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Flash is out of control.

Answer 3

Email spams get more sophisticated. They know how to pass around some spam filters, and yahoo is quite popular email.

After a while, yahoo will adjust their spam filters to the new wave of spam and you will get less of them.

Maybe your email adress got listed somewhere public or accessible to spam senders?