Cannot Send To Hotmail Addresses

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Hi guys.

Just recenty, any email we send to a hotmail addy gets bounced back.

MS have sent us this email, suggesting that we are responsible for sending SPAM.

But we have not.

Here is their email. Can you help?

Thanks.




----- Original Message -----
From: Microsoft Customer Support
To:
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2012 2:41 PM
Subject: Sender Information for Hotmail Delivery

Hello,



My name is Gerald and I work with the Windows Live Hotmail Sender Support Team.



We have information indicating suspicious/abusive email sending behavior from IP (XX.XXX.XXX.XXX):



Time of abuse: between 2012-03-03 05:22:00 and 2012-03-04 05:24:00 PST



Total RCPT To commands sent: 8327



Total email Sent: 1917



Because of the large difference in recept to commands versus email sent, this IP has been flagged for name space mining. Windows Live Hotmail is blocking (or filtering) all email sent from this IP.



What is namespace mining? It is a method commonly used by spammers and hackers to generate lists of email addresses. Using this approach, spammers and hackers use automation to sift through possible email names seeking to identify valid email addresses, e.g., [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]



What is required to get considered for mitigation? In order to mitigate your IP address, you must correct the problem and you must stop the behavior described above. Please supply the exact steps you are taking to either solve the issue, and mitigate the risk of this happening in the future.



Where do I start? Work with your email or network administrator to get logs off of your email servers. Have them check their log files and concentrate on logs that are sending to nonexistent @hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com with multiple tries and failures.



For more detailed information about best sending practices to Windows Live Hotmail users, please review the following white paper: http://download.microsoft.com/downl...a6-497d-9693-78f80be272fb/enhance_deliver.pdf



I hope that the information I provided you was helpful. You may also find additional information on common delivery questions at the Windows Live Hotmail Postmaster site found at http://postmaster.live.com



Sincerely,



Gerald
Windows Live Hotmail Sender Support
 
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Yep , I'm with John D on this, seems like your computer has picked up something, possibly a virus, that's sending emails whenever your computer is switched on. Have a look in your sent emails box. Run a full virus scan (after updating virus defenitions)
 
As the Johns above said, you have something on your computer that should not be there.

1) Update your antivirus software. Do NOT run it yet.

2) Download and install Malwarebytes Free Version. Update it. Do NOT run it yet

3) Download and install SuperAntiSpyware Free. Update it. Do NOT run it yet.

4) Reboot your computer into Safe Mode: Instructions HERE if you are not sure how to get to safe mode.

5) Run each of the above applications one at a time and let them remove EVERYTHING they find.

6) Restart computer.

If they find anything and remove it, you can then start talking to MS about reinstating your email.

dave
 
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Thanks, guys. I have passed this on to Mrs Secure, who noticed the problem.

Should we run these programs on all PC's on the network? We are all running up-to-date AVG.
 
It looks like you need to, because the microsoft email gave the IP address that was causing probs and you can't be sure which machine, or maybe all, are compromised.

you'd better change your password as well.
 
You can also get a virus that causes you to receive spam from yourself. I had this even with good antivirus and malware installed.
 
Thanks for all your help guys.

There are currently four PC's on the network, one running Win 7, two running XP and the fourth running Ubuntu 11.04.

The three with MS OS's all have up-to-date AVG Free.

I'll start with mine.......
 
The computer running Ubuntu 11.04, should be fine Sec. The only danger with that one is unwittingly passing on attachments via email. As it's running a Linux OS, it's highly unlikely to be infected with anything. ;) ;)
 
Thanks again, jj, I've left that PC alone.

OK. I have does as advised. I downloaded, installed and updated the Malware & Spyware programs on all the other three PC's, then ran each in safe mode and deleted all the problem files.

My PC had one threat highlighted by the Malware program and 35 Spyware threats, all file items.

Will's PC had no threats highlighted by the Malware but 21 Spyware threats.

Mrs Secure's PC had one Malware threat and 1492 Spyware threats.

All were quarantined then deleted, then the systems rebooted.

On top, I ran AVG PC tune-up on each, highlighting some issues wich were then fixed.

Oddly, having run the Tune-up on Will's PC and had it clean up the issues, I accidentally ran it again. It picked up 4 other issues. :?:

I shall email the Hotmail geezer back and let him know what I've done.

But, as far as these rogue emails go, I have no record of them. Is that normal?

Thanks again folks!
 
it's usual to run the cleaners again and again until they find nothing.

if the same thing keeps coming back, you have an extra job to do
 
Thanks John,

I'm now considering getting my hand out of my pocket and paying for an upgrade to the freeware to get realtime protection from this happening again.

HOWEVER, I'm a tad confused. Do the two programs I have installed check for the same things?

I have AVG Free, which can be upgraded to offer better protection, but will it be as good as the two I have downloaded?

Or shall I keep AVG Free & upgrade the Mal & Spyware programs to offer real time protection?

At the moment, the freeware versions just work after the event, ie click the scan button & it'll do its job but it won't stop the threat before it does the damage.
 
Come to think of it, I just looked up AVG Free and it has Anti-spyware built-in.

Why didn't it find this stuff?

Confused. My noggin hurts....
 
I understand AVG is good, but I don't use it myself. I use Norton Internet Security which blocks attacks as they happen on my home machine, otherwise I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials package which is also very good and I believe does about the same. I'm surprised if free AVG doesn't do realtime attack detection.

Some people say Norton products are resource hogs. I don't find that. You can buy NIS quite cheap on fleabay (if you buy a new, unregistered copy of last year's version with unused licence number at half price, or the year before at even less, the moment you register it, it downloads a free upgrade to the 2012 version, and updates itself every day with any changes). As you have several PCs, you might look at a multi-PC version, which I think I saw at half price in Tesco recently.

I just had a look at the "Which" tests, and the best buys were:

Bullguard - Internet Security 12, scored 86%. £17
Microsoft - Security Essentials 2012 , 84%. free
AVG - Internet Security 2012, 77%, £30
AVG - Anti-Virus Free 2012 , 75%, free

"Which" does say about the free AVG
"Overall, this software is OK, but it can be confusing at times. Overall, Microsoft Security Essentials is a better free option."

NIS only scored 69% so I must be a dummy to keep on using it. It does have some other features I like though, such as the Identity Safe password manager.

I am an experienced user, not a PC professional. I have worked more with much larger systems.
 
Seems like Bullguard is the way.

It's a lot cheaper than AVG and offers more, plus Which? seem to like it a lot.

Anybody using it? Is it any good?
 
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