Unsolicited email from my PlusNet account

[theboyfold]

Please help, I've just been sent this email and have run a virus scan, which found a virus and removed it. I've since re rum it and it can't find anything, but it (Trend Micro PS-cillin) Seems to be forever scanning out going emails. I've not even got the email account they are talking about set up in Outlook.

Does anybody know where I can start to get to the bottom of this mess?!

PlusNet said:

Dear Customer, It has come to our attention that a source of unsolicited email has been linked to your account with us. This could have one of several possible causes, including those in the following list: - You are running an insecure SMTP relay or proxy software - Your PC is infected by an email virus, worm or trojan - You have a web server with an insecure Formmail script - You are yourself sending unsolicited email

[voyds9]

Had one of these from Virgin, assumed it was phising.

[theboyfold]

voyds9 said:

Had one of these from Virgin, assumed it was phising.

But I've asked PlusNet via the contact us section on the website and they have confirmed that they sent the email. Also I've installed Micro PC-cillin and it's forever scanning out going mail.

Further investigation has shown a programme running called 34exmodulax.exe, which when I end the process it stops telling me that Micro PC-cillin is scanning outgoing messages.

[sp60]

Several ways of attacking this...

Firstly reboot into safe mode (press F8 as windows starts to boot)
then run a full online virus scanner, such as symantec's:
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/de
I favour this one as it will tell you what virus it has found and point you towards
a removal tool, or instructions on how to remove.

This approach does two main things. It reduces the chance of the virus being loaded
at boot time as safe mode loads a minimal set of drivers and programs. The online scanners download a fresh set of virus defenitions, and more importantly an uninfected
virus scanning engine, which is important as some viruses evade detection by infecting
well known virus applications.

If this doesn't sort it then there are other approaches, but need to know what operating system you are using and a bit more about your setup. I have presumed windows, but are
you connected via standard modem, adsl modem, router modem and home network etc...

[TangoAlpha]

I got a similar email from PlusNet too. After discussing it on the phone, it's seems that if they receive a complaint about spam that purports to be from one of their customers they send out this email. Unfortunately they don't seem to do the most basic of checks to ensure that the email actually is from that customer. So if a spammer uses your email address as a fake return address you get this "warning"