worm (email, click, spyware, anti-virus)

[buildings_and_bridges]

Looks like I had a worm in my Yahoo! mail; a spam message was sent without my knowing to everyone in my address book, and then my address book was erased. Is all that typical? At this point, I'm just wondering if there are more precautions I need to be taking. I do have anti-virus and anti-spy and ad-ware. But should I change my e-mail address? I'd rather not if it's not necessary, but I wanted to know what others do when this happens to them. Maybe I'm lucky that this is the first and only time this has happened to me (as far as I know).

Thanks in advice for any advice!

[themaster]

I'm going to first off be honest and say.. I don't how it's possible for a worm or virus to target specifically a assumed HTML based email program called yahoo..

If your using say outlook or outlook express/windows mail this is different but if not.. then I think you’re just doing what a large percentage of the population do when it comes to "fear" and the computer.. and that's over-reacting..

There's no reason to change your email address unless you want too..

If you want the best anti-spyware/adware product out there that I can recommend.. that would be nod32 (not perfect but the best with a 80-90% effectiveness rate) if you want a freeware adware product that's actually decent.. I recommend "Malewarebytes"

I'll let someone else help you out now.. your question really speaks to someone who doesn't understand computers that well.. I might suggest reading some wiki's or educating yourself if this is a re-occurring problem for you..

[Brian.Pearson]

I think it is possible if a person clicks on a link in that email message which takes him away from Yahoo.

[buildings_and_bridges]

Originally Posted by themaster

....then I think you’re just doing what a large percentage of the population do when it comes to "fear" and the computer.. and that's over-reacting...

Well, that's good. It's really my parents who were concerned when I told them what happened. Not to say that I wasn't--I was starting this thread to be safe. But I tend to be pretty nonchalant about the computer, honestly.

Thanks for those software recommendations; I hadn't heard of either.

It has happened only once, so not a re-occurring problem. And now that I think back, I suspect that I'm the culprit, as Brian.Pearson speculated. I think I clicked on a link when someone sent the identical e-mail to me and that's how this happened to me. I guess that's pretty classic.