Mail returns

[Lorcan]

I receive over a thousand email returns a day. I don't physically send them.

The majority purport to be from email addresses similar to mine.

Is there anything I can do to stop or even reduce the deluge? Could my ISP (Orange) stop them? Would an IT professional be able to help if I called one i?

[vehelpfulguy]

Could you PC have been hijacked ?

Read this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3528810. stm

Do you run a firwall and anti-virus ?

[vehelpfulguy]

This is a bit more up to date

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases /stories/2006/10_october/09/pc.shtml

[Lorcan]

I've read the article and it sounds horribly familiar.

I have a subscrption to McAfee anti-virus and firewall and it is regularly updated.

[vehelpfulguy]

Go into your firewall and DELETE every program that is allowed to connect to the internet.

Then as each program wants to use the internet you should get a little window asking if that is OK.

Check each program one by one to make sure the program is a valid and genuine program before you say OK.

Try runing some "spyware" programs like Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy to find rogue programs.

I also use WinPatrol (free) which tells you every time a program tries to install itself.

This is very useful as you can say NO if you do not recognize the program.

[Lorcan]

Thanks for the answers. However, I am not sure I have a virus as my virus scan doesn't show it.

My email address is [email protected] and the vast majority I receive is addressed to [email protected]. If I only received mail addressed to me I'd have no problem.