Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

Why is mail being sent to all my contacts?

Question:

For the last two days and previously about a month ago, I have mails
sent to all my contacts that are stored in my address book. These mails
have an advert attached for a discount firm located in China. I’ve
written to the firm and told them what is happening but I get no reply. I
thought if I deleted the addresses I no longer want and keep those that
I do want but not stored in my computer, I could solve the problem. But
I just can’t find how to delete these addresses. Any advice you can
give me would be appreciated.

The contents of your address book is not the problem.

In fact, you likely have a much larger problem that you need to
address an entirely different way.

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

Having email unexpectedly be sent to everyone in your address book
is a classic sign that your machine is likely infected with a virus or
some form of malware. That “attached” advertisement is likely not an ad
at all, but rather a copy of the virus itself attempting to spread.

Needless to say you should immediately make sure that you’re running
up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software, with up-to-date
databases.

“Having email unexpectedly be sent to everyone
in your address book is a classic sign that your machine is likely
infected with a virus… “

Hopefully, the people in your address book knew not to open
attachments, but if the email came from you, then it’s perhaps possible
that they did. If so, then they too are possibly infected and should be
making sure to take the same steps: up-to-date anti-virus and
anti-spyware scans.

The company in China might not have any idea what you’re
talking about. They could be responsible for the virus but that seems a
little too blatant. It’s more likely that they had nothing to do with
this. In any case I’d be shocked if they responded.

So deleting entries from your address book, while it might reduce
the number of people that get sent this viral email, isn’t solving the
problem at all.

Though, to try and answer the question you asked: you didn’t
indicate what email program you use, but in most you can open your
address book or view your contact list by clicking on a menu item,
button or other control that says “Contacts” or “Address Book”. Once
there you can typically click on a specific contact and then either
click on a delete button, or right click on the contact and select
delete. As you can see, the specifics vary from program to program, but
the concepts are pretty much the same everywhere.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

2 comments on “Why is mail being sent to all my contacts?”

  1. How can I get TVI (Tamil Vision International) from Toronto through the Internet. It is free for the first 3 months. Thereafter it is $9.99 for a month.TVI is a Tamil Language Program perhaps supported by CMR (may be Canadian Media ….)

    My computer is Emachine T2484 four years old. Difficult to get any helpful information from TVI.

    How can I direct the signals from my Computer to our TVs in 2 different rooms wireless? Your help appreciated.
    We are 77 years old and cannot afford to buy top of the line new computer.

    TVI’s Email: [Email address removed]

    Reply
  2. The “comment” above on TVI is not a legitimate reply to Leo’s article above – PLEASE do not clutter up his excellent website and articles with irrelevant questions.

    Older TVs and PC monitors are not the same technology even though they look the same, so there is no easy answer to your question. Try Google, or a friendly local PC store for more help.

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.