Personal Message Virus. Do not open or log in

[Joe S.]

The personal message virus uses your email account and password that it steals from you to replicate to others so it can steal their emails. You must change your password immediately. This is why my msn account need so much additional information.

I hope that you do not get this but now you know what it is and how to correct it.

[Luna]

Are you talking about the messenger? Or this board, or msn email? Im confused.

LUna

[Joe S.]

This is an e-mail only virus. There may be a personal messenger version but I have not seen that yet. It looks like it came from the middle east but that is all the trace back that I have checked.

[jazzlover]

What do they put in the subject line?

[stephL]

Thanks for the warning Joe. I hadn't heard about a virus. But over the past several years, just about everyone I know has had their msn (Hotmail & Windows Live Messenger)  hacked and used for advertising purposes, including me. The accounts weren't actually stolen, they would log into my acct to send everyone on my contact list advertisement links. This next part didn't happen to me because I caught it and changed my password in time, but others had their account reported to msn and their account was banned for spamming. Microsoft will unban the account when the owner verifies their identity. But it can be quite a hassle.

I now have a harder to guess password that is super long, and it contains numbers, symbols, and upper and lower case letters. It's awkward to have to type such a long password but I've haven't been hacked since then. 

[Joe S.]

Personal or private message in the header line. I have moved on to a very long password with numbers and symbols.

[Luna]

Thank you for letting us know Joe..

Luna