I noticed yesterday that my computer is doing something strange.
AVG anti-virus pops up a small marquee down to the right from the taskbar informing me that:
AVG E-mail scanner
AutoPOP3 connecting to xxxxxxxx
Where xxxxxxx is an address of some sort.
So far I’ve seen it connect/attempt to connect (I don’t know whether it succeeds or not) to three different addresses.
89.36.160.172
h89220135029.dsl.speedlinq.nl 81-233-206-214-no89.tbcn.telia.com
I run AVG Free for virus protection.
I use the Windows Firewall.
I run Ad-Aware now and then and all it usually finds is some tracking cookies.
I have read the sticky thread to look for further tips.
So after that I updated both AVG and Ad-Aware and ran them both again. I also download Spybot and ran it as well.
I also installed the Zone Alarm Firewall.
The problem (if it is one) is still there.
So is this a problem? Is my computer sending e-mail without me knowing it (I am not sending any e-mail myself when this happens)?
It certainly sounds suspicious. One thing that would make me think it’s NOT sending spam is that the thing that’s connecting out is called AutoPOP3. POP3 is the protocol for getting email, SMTP is for sending email. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
I got a bunch of hits searching Google for “autopop3”. Have you tried that?
It looks like normal behaviour to me. AVG is scanning your incoming mail.
AVG hooks into your normal mail client. Anything sending email without your knowledge is unlikely to be using your email client to do so. (You could double-check by looking at your ‘sent items’ folder.)
If you go to www.ripe.net and plug in 89.36.160.172, you’ll find it’s an address from Romania controlled by Jump.ro. Are you sending email to someone in Romania?
I do not use Outlook or Outlook Express for my e-mails. I access my gmail via Firefox. So it cannot be my incoming mail it is scanning can it?
I do not e-mail anyone in Romania.
I took MrSquishys suggestion and googled autopop3 and it seems other people have similar problems. Going to read through some of those to see if anyone has a solution.
No, not if you are using Gmail via Firefox.
Your firewall (Zonealarm) should be blocking this. You may have accidentally allowed it at some point. I’d suggest going into the programs you have set as ‘allow’ and deleting anything you aren’t 100% sure of. Then anything that sets off the firewall after that is your likely culprit.