My computer is sending out spam and there is nothing I can do to stop it!

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My desktop computer has been sending out spam at irregular intervals between every 7 and 21 days since September 10, 2015, thirteen times so far. I have tried just about everything I can think of without spending scads of money or reformatting my hard drive.

FYI - MY desktop runs Windows Vista, my laptop runs Windows 7 for my laptop, and my iPhone 6 and iPad mini 2 run iOS. I use the latest version of Firefox on my desktop and laptop, and Safari on my mobile devices. I keep everything up to date. I had the free version of aVast on my Windows computers and always kept it up to date, and run daily full computer scans.

I had been away from home for 4 months when it started, and was using Team Viewer to keep a connection open between my laptop and desktop. I called my ISP the first time it happened because they had denied access to my account. I changed my email password then, and several times after a new batch went out. I lost access to my home computer so was unable to scan with aVast there, but everything else was clean.

When I got home in November, I deleted Team viewer, bought a paid version of aVast Internet Security, called my ISP again several times, changed my internet account password as well as my email password, ran a boot-time scan, ran the browser cleanup and everything comes back clean. Next, I isolated it to my desktop computer by not using email on my mobile devices or laptop for a month. I have talked to lots of tech people and done a lot of research but can't find anything with various one-time malware scans.

BUT it's still sending spam.

I recently contacted aVast support for the paid version, and they said to post in the forum, which I would have done with the free version! I have kept many of the returned emails if they are needed to examine headers. So far, no one has asked for them.

Please tell me what more is needed to stop this! Thank you.

[Pondus]

follow instructions here  https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0
we need Malwarebytes and Farbar Recovery Scan Tool logs, attach the logs, 3 logs total

see below the box you write in ... Attachments and other options

a malware expert will then assist you when online

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I am attaching the MWB log but the Farbar download crashed my computer twice. I downloaded the 32-bit because that's what my system is, but since the instructions said to try both if you weren't sure, I tried the 64-bit version and while it didn't work, it also didn't crash my computer.

Any idea what's going on? Any alternatives you can suggest?

[Pondus]

try run it from safe mode

malware experts will be back online tomorrow

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I'm still hoping for a malware expert to help me with this issue. So far, I've had no success, except to attempt to send the requested reports, and crashing my computer every time I tried to download the Farbar tool. Help, please?

[Eddy]

Boot in safe mode with networking and try to download Farbar.

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Ignore FRST for now.

• Step #1 Run Zoek
  Temporary disable your security software i.e. anti-virus, anti-malware. Peruse this if you are unsure. Download Zoek.exe by smeenk from one of the following locations listed below --
  Download Link #1
  Download Link #2
  
  • Right-click and choose Run as administrator to run the program.
    
    • Note: The program may not appear instantaneously. Await few minutes for the program to start if that happens
  • Copy and Paste the following content inside the code box into Zoek's box --
    

Code: [Select]

standardsearch;
installedprogs;
srinfo;


• Close all open Windows including your web-browser.
• Click on Run Script.
  
• Your system may reboot and a log file will open which is also located in your systemdrive.
• Copy and Paste the contents of the log in your next reply.

• Required Log(s):
  
  • Zoek Log

Regards,
Valinorum

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Valinorum, Is it safe to disable the anti-virus anti-malware software? I know it may be necessary, just a little hesitant to do it. Thanks.

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Zoek is sometimes detected by the security programs but it is clean. Disable them while you run Zoek and enable them afterwards.

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Valinorum, I'm unable to run Zoek. I'm doing a boot-time scan at the moment which is taking hours, but the next time I have access I will tell you the error message I got. I followed your instructions, downloaded it, right-clicked and chose "run as administrator". That's when I got the error message. This must be a pretty clever piece of malware if that's what is causing all this grief.

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Valinorum: I tried downloading Zoek again, and this is the error message when I tried to run it as administrator:

"Can't find script engine 'VBScript' for script 'C:\Users\Wendy\AppData\:Local\Temp\os.vbs'".

Now what??

[REDACTED]

Follow this article and run a scan with System File Checker.

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Thank you, I will do that. Do you know if it takes a long time? I can start it now if it is a relatively quick process, but if it takes 6 hours like the boot-time aVast scan I did, I'll wait until I don't need to use my computer.

[REDACTED]

It depends on the PC and the issues it encounter. But in your case, I am inclined to believe it to be a lengthy process. Run it after you have finished your works.

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Thanks so much. I'll let you know the results I'm done.