Is someone on your contact list sending you spam? Individual links usually followed by a smily 
. Or has someone just told you that they are getting these links from you?
Well there’s good news and bad news..
Good news is through all the research I’ve done on behalf of friend, family and clients the last couple of days this is not a high risk issue.
Bad news is that you still have a problem, and you should definitely get rid of it promptly.
It seems that there are several ideas out there as to what could be causing this current ‘bug’ in MSN IM. Some seem to think that it’s caused by a trojan (and of course I came across 4 sites each saying it was a different trojan). Many believe it to be malware, spyware or an actual hack.
Truth be known, I don’t care which it is, lets deal with it, and get rid of it! Here it goes…
Enough sites that I came across recommended uninstalling windows live messenger first then rebooting your system before beginning your scans. Control pane, add/remove programs
I would recommend that you create a restore point now so that you can always go back to how it was before you attempted to ‘fix’ anything . Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore (click). Select ‘Create a restore point’ click next and follow the wizard.
Next important thing… CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD! go to https://login.live.com/ login to your windows live profile account and change your password and security question. This will ensure that if you had a trojan and the owner was able to obtain your user/pass they can’t get back into your account.
Let’s be sure it’s not a trojan or virus… Update your anti-virus software, check that your virus definitions are also up to date, verify that your settings will do a complete deep scan and scan your entire hard drive.
restart your system…
Check that windows messenger is not installed (this is not windows live messenger). Open your control panel, select add/remove windows components options (xp and 2000 only, this is not included in vista), scroll to the bottom of the list and make sure that windows messenger is unchecked. If it is checked, uncheck it and click next / finish.
restart your system…
Next we come to spyware and malware. I want to say up front that no matter how great your current solution is someone else’s product will probably identify something that it didn’t. Having said that the two products that I personally use are Adaware by lavasoft, and X-Cleaner by xblock.
Adaware has a free version for personal use which you can install and do a complete deepscan of your computer for ad-ware. Anything critical remove the rest you may want to get rid of however many of the cookies it removes will wipe out some of your saved passwords on sites you regularly visit.
restart your system…
X-Cleaner is a great privacy tool, including spyware and malware detection, and much more. I like to have it run on start which does a nice clean up and quick malware scan. The tool you need with x-cleaner is the malware scanner. Run the malware scanner and see if that brings up anything and remove it.
restart your system…
If you have a program that you like to use for spyware or adware detection run that too, as I mentioned what one misses another may find.
restart your system…
Last bit that may or may not be helpful would be to run your favourite registry scanner. I recently came across a decent freeware program called easycleaner which seems to do a nice job. Back up your registry before doing anything with it. Clean up your registry and restart your system…
Hopefully during all of these steps something came up and was eliminated.. if not it’s possible that it was a site you visited that grabbed your user/pass info, and changing it will stop the spam from going out from your account.
Download the latest version of windows live messenger (http://www.windowslive.ca/messenger), reinstall it and see you back online soon.
Please remember to keep your anti-virus, spyware, malware programs and definititions up to date! Daily is recommended and you should do complete scans every week.
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Hey all, seems that changing your MSN (Windows Live) password is what does the trick… But don’t bypass any of the scans etc. as they should be done regularly anyway.
Make sure you have the latest version of Windows Live Messenger so that you aren’t using a version with known security holes.
Best to remove any and all cookies from your browsers that you don’t know where they are from. Some of these can be used to get your passwords..
Hello! My girlfriend has got the problem you describe but she got it when she visited an Internet Cafe during a holiday, so she don´t have the virus on her own computer. Is it best to change password in this case as well?
Best Regards
Markus
Hey Markus,
Yes if she thinks that she encountered that problem then it’s possible that someone out there has access to her Windows Live Messenger account.
I would advise to Change her password. It definitely can’t hurt.
Good luck!
I created a website similar to this to help MSN users fight against MSN spam and viruses. Originally it was intended for my friends in Hungary, but it began spreading. So I translated it into English and made it available at http://msn.solymosi.eu/en
okay i know this is kinda late but anyways, nowadays whenever i log on to msn it always spams my friends/contacts. The spam says “I like your facebook picture” (or something along those lines) and then provides a link. The first time I got it, I opened it: and I think this may be the reason of the spamming. I’ve changed my password and I’ve run a scan on my system but neither method has worked. What other options are there for my situation? I’ve also uninstalled and then installed Windows Live Messenger 2011 but I haven’t tried it yet because I don’t want to annoy my contacts D: .. Please help me, this is getting very frustrating.. ARGHH
Just in the day to day process of work, read the paper, Industry newsletters, other blogs, questions from clients, finding solutions for others etc..