ADN

Hi, not sure if this is the right place but here goes,
I'm not very good with technology so I'm grateful for any help!
My hotmail account seems to be deleting my emails on a regular basis, then I opened a gmail account & forwarded about 100 emails which then were gone about 24h later!!
WTF is going on?
I have McAfee running & have a wireless connection with WEP.
Do I have a virus or is someone hacking in to my account?

Yikes man...

First off, I hate McAfee, and I'm sure there are several other AF tech heads that will agree with me...Reason being, everyone wants to boast about security, and provide little of it...I think McAfee even costs money...

*shudders*

What I think could be happening is that your mail is being screened somehow and being marked as having 'unsafe' content...But when you said something about opening a new gmail account, forwarding those mails, and then even have those mails deleted, my suspicions changed...I've had gmail for a very long time, never experienced an issue like that...Usually, if anything, it will move suspicious like mails (Which are almost always 100% spam) into a spam folder that empties out periodically...

No AV software I can think of, even shitty Norton and McAfee, provides online email box scanning...So, either you do have a virus and the mails are being deleted off the server, or someone is fucking w/your box on your end...

My advice would be to first find a real (I use AVG Free) virus software, install it, run the update to get the latest virus definitions, and then run a full system scan...You can choose to do this with McAfee, but I don't trust that software...Change your PC's log on password, as well as passes on any mailboxes that you have...You'll want to clear you cookies, cache, and saved passwords when you close your browser to prevent someone from simply logging on and getting into your shit...

All kinds of things we can do, and we'll help you, but that's a good place to start...If both gmail and M$ are deleting your mails, my guess is that they're infected, and that infection has maybe moved down into your system...

We may also need to do a system startup scan and install some good spyware apps to get you straightened out...

thanks for that!
Am dloading AVG & will run that, only have Mcafee cos its free with work!
emails that were deleted were in my mailbox for a while, days to months so dont think they were spam.
also, i'm sole user of both my PCs!
few questions:
I've recently set up a VPN connection with the Uni i work for, does that make it any difference?
Can you recommend anti-spyware sofware?
how do I do a system startup scan?
cheers dude!

OK awesome, you're getting AVG...I can get you the 8.0 if you want it... :D

AT any rate, the free version is fine for now...Once you get it downloaded, installed, and updated, after you run your full system scan to make sure its clean, load up these free tools (always making sure to update them before scanning) and let them clean your spyware and adware out...

Windows Defender
http://tinyurl.com/2wsok6

If your copy of Windows is questionable, I'll DL and then post it for you...If you're worried M$ programs are shit, don't worry, they just bought out the company that made that software which is excellent...It will scan and take care of your startup items for you, so let it boot when you turn on your system..

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://tinyurl.com/4mbok

Once you install, update, and then run this tool, you'll be rid of many nasties hiding around your system...If you need help w/where to go and what to do, just post back here and we can throw you up some screens...But for the most part, it should be fairly easy...

After you've done that, and have Windows Defender and AVG actively protecting your PC, you can uninstall/deactivate that McAfee and you'll pretty much have peace of mind about your PC's security...Nothing is failsafe, but if you make it through this, you should be OK...

Any email issues from here on out will probably be the work of the person hosting your email accounts...

thanks so much for that! really not very good with PC tech! i feel much safer now!
guess i'll have to wait & see if any more of my emails go missing!!!

I know this may sound quite simple but someone may know your password and shit so just try changing your password. I know my girlfriend ... now ex-girlfriend i should say, passwords for everything and I can check her emails when I want. But ofcourse me being the good guy I m wont do that.

So first thing Id suggest is basically change your passwords and see if that makes a difference because I mean think about it .. it may not be a virus and someone could just be screwing with you.

I have Hotmail and Gmail accounts. I'm weaning everyone off my Hotmail accounts onto Gmail and I'm going to close the Hotmail accounts.

Reason? Well Hotmail is dropping legitimate mail without notifying me or the sender. Seriously, it's that bad if I was paying for the service I'd be asking for a refund or worse. Gmail drops nothing. Also Gmail has sooooo any more features than Hotmail.

Enough ranting. Change your passwords on everything. Including on your WEP router. Consider maybe not using wireless internet. AVG is great and so is any antispyware stuff. If they find problems though you may want to consider an operating system reinstall. If you have stuff that's important maybe dual boot Linux if you don't want to reinstall Windows.

I have no idea why your stuff is being deleted. Maybe someone has access to your passwords. Maybe your computer or router is compromised. Many possibilities.

I've been dual booting people onto Ubuntu linux for ages now since its faster to install than fixing their hacked windows boxes. I just get them to use Ubuntu for everything important and windows for everything else.

If you'd be interested in pursing this just ask.

Thanks for advice
I've been changing my passwords loads over the last few weeks, so that nobody could possible know them.
So far AVG or other progs havent found anything.
I might change my WEP password, but have to get my bros to do that, since he set it up for me!
U completely lost me at linux & rebooting!!!!
I'm hoping that this will sort itself out so I wont have to do anything else!!!

Guess it shows how reliant I've become on emails for personal & work stuff!

Just meaning to say that if your windows operating system had viruses on it you could dual boot the linux operating system on your computer. That would be virus free and hopefully no one would be interfering or capturing your personal data.

Just in case anyone was wondering, I found out a while ago but forgot to mention.
crazy ex who was hacking in to my hotmail by using the forgot password link & entering some personal info to reset the password!
crazy bitch!