Andrew Tech Help

Has your account or one of your friend's Windows Live Messenger (MSN/Hotmail/Live) account been hacked or taken over by a rebot which is sending out spam like "http://thats.hotdealss.com/?ash_3108" or "How horny are you today? Come chat with me!! "which'>http://renaediane2000.chat-4-real.com/lust.php"which either contain spyware, pornor ads??? (I wouldn't actually visit those sites either if I were you) There is 2 ways that it can do this - Either you've gone to a website or program and entered your accounte-mail address and password into it (thinking it was legit) or that you've got some Spyware on your system that's tracking what you type and is sending that off to the robot sending the spam. The bad thing about this 2nd one is that no matter how many times you change your password it will just keep updating itself. Before you try this, try changing your password and seeing if that fixes the problem. If not then there are 2 steps to fix the problem - installing a spyware removal program and then changing your password. This is how you do it!

1. Open up either Internet Explorer/Mozilla Firefox/Google Chrome or whatever browser you use and navigate to http://www.safer-networking.org/
2. On the Safer Networking site click the English Link that has the British Flag next to it - that will take you to the UK English version of the site - the version of English that we use in Australia, if you come from another country - then choose the respective language from your country.



3. Once you are here - Click on the Download link at the top of the page.



4. On the download page click the Download button next to the product called Spybot-Search and Destroy



5. On the next page listing all the mirrors that Spybot-Search and Destroy can be downloaded from - I suggest you get it from Safer-Networking Ltd. #1 server. So click download next to that.



6. Finally (yes I know that this site is a pain) click the final download link and then choose to Run the setup file (or in Firefox you'll have to save it, but you can run it afterwards). You can now close your web browser.



7. Setup will commence - firstly pick your Lauguage - then click Next.



8. On the Welcome screen - just click Next.



9. You will need to accept the licence agreement - just click the "I Accept the Agreement" and click Next



10. Leave the default installation folder - that's exactly where it needs to install - Click Next.



11. Spybot Search and Destroy can install a lot of extra stuff you don't need - for what you'll need choosing "Compact Installation (No Additional Languages)" is quite fine. Then click Next



12. Leave the default Start Menu folder - it puts it's stuff in the right place - Click Next.



13. On this screen we must remove one critical thing- otherwise it will annoy you majorly. Untick the "Use system settings protection (TeaTimer). This program pops up everytime a change is made to a system folder - it looks ugly and is confusing - so it's best it's turned off. Then Click Next



14. Click Install on this last screen - setup will begin to install Spybot Search and Destroy and download the latest Spyware Definitions - so it knows what to remove.



15. Spybot Search and Destroy will now download the latest Spyware Definitions - you will just have to wait for this to occur - it's a quick download normally.



16. Now the program will install - this is also a quick process - Spybot Search and Destroy is not a big program.



17. On the Setup Complete screen - click Finish. This will launch Spybot Search and Destroy.



18. Spybot Search and Destroy will now load - the progress bar may stop at the end - just be patient, it's loading for the first time.



19. On the little Legal notice window - click "Don't show this message again" and then OK- This is basically saying that if you remove spyware - the programs that put it there won't work anymore - big deal, that's a good thing.



20. The first time setup wizard will appear for Spybot Search and Destroy - on the first Window click the Create Registry Backup - just in case something goes wrong. Then Click Next.



21. On the next window- Click Search for Updates - this will check for any other update that the installer did not get.



22. In the Update window - just click next to let the Updater get updates from the default server.



23. Then make sure all the boxes are ticked and click Download. After this your Spybot Search and Destroy will be as up to date as it possibly can be and ready for some Spyware removal. Once it's done close the Updater while Spybot Restarts itself. You may have to click OK to a message about remimunisation.



24. Now the main Spybot Search and Destroy window will appear - click Check for Problems and sit back and wait for at least 30mins - there is to date 507,077 pieces of nasty software it looks for.



25. This is what the main scanning window looks like. If you click the arrows on the right of the screen - if it finds any spyware - it will provide a description of what it does.



26. If Spybot Search and Destroy finds anything bad - it will be listed in Red. Make sure all the check boxes are ticked and click Fix Selected Problems at the top. Spybot search and destroy will then attempt to remove the nasty stuff. If it can't remove everything then it will ask to restart and it will run the scan and removal again after you login - but before your desktop appears.



27. Ok - well now the spyware is off there's one more thing to do - goto http://account.live.com/ and login there. Then use the change password link and change your Password. Once you've done this - then you should not have anymore trouble with Spam being sent from your account.