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View Full Version : Playing tech support for parents - hijacker/virus assistance needed

Morrigoon
05-01-2007, 06:09 PM
Well, my dad's email account and/or hard drive has clearly been hijacked. Every time he goes for his email, the thing goes nuts and he gets hundreds of undeliverables bounced back to him (which, naturally, he didn't send).

I told him to run his virus stuff, and he says he has Norton. He is NOT the most tech savvy, so I need something simple he can get to take care of it, if possible. Suggestions?
wendybeth
05-01-2007, 06:41 PM
Anti-spyware? I dunno- we have just about everything I can think of on ours, and I still am uber paranoid to open attachments. Has he run a system scan with Norton?
Not Afraid
05-01-2007, 06:52 PM
Is he using Yahoo?

Yahoo just dumped 3000 emails in my work account.
BarTopDancer
05-01-2007, 08:02 PM
Have him go download AVGFree (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5#avg-anti-virus-free) and LavaSoft Ad-Aware (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5). Both are free and will pick up stuff Norton will skip over.
Morrigoon
05-01-2007, 11:42 PM
ad aware is good stuff... I was thinking about making him d/l that. Haven't used AVGFree yet, but it's always nice to find new free stuff! Thanks
Moonliner
05-02-2007, 10:56 AM
ad aware is good stuff... I was thinking about making him d/l that. Haven't used AVGFree yet, but it's always nice to find new free stuff! Thanks

Here is how I deal with these situations.... (assumes Windows XP)


Have your needy person:


START->Help and support->Invite a friend to connect to your computer with Remote Assistance->Invite someone to help you->

From there use Windows messenger to send yourself an invite if they/you have it, if not then you will have to use email.

Once you connect, you can work to fix the PC yourself.
Ponine
05-02-2007, 12:06 PM
I also reccomend Hijack This!
Betty
05-03-2007, 05:54 AM
Are you sure someone isn't just forging his email address and sending out spam. Anything that isn't valid get's returned - which I would imagine could be quite a few.

They don't have to hack into your account to do this - they just forge the "return address".

Maybe you can take of the emails and run it through spam cop to see where it's actually coming from. You could also filter out all the returns through some rules - but it'll just happen again. Might want to contact his ISP for advice on how to block all the returns...