Email virus problem

My brother has had a problem with the above for months. The virus has invaded his contacts list and sends dodgy emails to all on that list on a fairly regular basis. I received one again yesterday but have learnt to check with my brother by text message before opening or not.

My question is please....will a cleaner get rid of it? Or is it going to take a computer man to sort it. Unfortunately neither of us have any great knowledge of the 'workings' so are not prepared to risk trying anything else.

 

Personally I'd get expert help, but then I dont know much, other than when my PC was invaded a few years ago via a dodgy e mail.
My Macafee security let it in and was useless at trying to get rid of it.

 

He needs to change his email address.
Happened to me and I was advised to change my password. I did but still felt vulnerable. So, changed email address + password.
Yes, it's a bind/bugger but that is the only way to do it. In my experience a cleaner does not do it nor will a PC man.

 

It hadn't occurred to me to ask him John, I'll do so tomorrow.

 

Thanks all for the info, I'll pass it on.

 

I assume it has infected the computer? Try running the anti-viral but often a virus stops such programs running.
Most virus's can be identified from a PID number which is constantly changing (PID numbers should be stable) using the task manager. Once a process is identified you will be able to see where it is, go to the file location and either delete that file or if it will not allow deletion simply rename it making sure to change the file type (ie from dll to jpeg). at this point you can usually fire up the antiviral or malware and let them clean up.
Having said all that I would not recommend trying it unless you're computer confident - I have my stepson to fall back on (although it was him who taught me how to do it).

 

We have got exactly the same problem.I was always getting dodgy one line advertising emails from a member of GC,then they stopped so assumed that person had solved the problem themselves,but now find that every few weeks I and even Mr Kandy when he is at work gets them as well as friends and relatives and we just don't know how to stop it as we have anti virus in place.

Mine first started when I was using my laptop but when that packed up I thought the problem had stopped but now since having tablets we still have the problem as friends and relatives let us know when they are getting them.

I do hate sitting here thinking that some unknown person has taken info off of my computer to use it at their leisure.It makes me feel sometimes like I don't want to use these technology of the future any more.

As I am blonde and can't understand half of what advice people have given on here I will ask the tech expert when he gets home tonight and see if he can understand it all.

PS, we don't use Hotmail on our computers,at least I don't think we do

 

Thank you everyone for your help. My brother is using Yahoo for email but this information is now obsolete, he decided this morning to take his computer to an expert for a service as he put it, he should have it back sometime tomorrow.

Although my knowledge isn't great, there's a few things I'll have to talk to him about when he gets it back. Cookie deletion, scans etc. The basic things that we should do on a regular basis.

 

I have found that it can help to post a question on the internet - just in Google itself. If you can give it a name or mention specifically what it does that will help.

There will be lots of links for this or any other virus or questionable program. I read all the links, and sometimes you find a board where someone has a post about the same problem. People may then offer solutions such as what program might remove it.