Problem with computer viruses

Factual Questions
#1

Thanks for clicking on this thread.

Here’s the situation: Lately, several people have told me that I sent them a computer virus. I don’t know how this could be so. Below are the facts:

  1. I use an iMac for my email. Mac’s aren’t susceptible to .exe files. (By the way, it’s OS9, if that matters).
  2. The offending emails are coming from my Yahoo! address. I use this address for most of my professional email needs. The emails are never hosted on my local computer. Composing a Yahoo! email is similar to composing a post for the SDMB, in that you fill out a form and text fields in a browser window.
  3. Hi, Opal!
  4. I only send and receive email using a web browser. I’ve used both IE and Netscape. I don’t use Outlook, Outlook Express, Collabra, or any other email reader for this particular address. On the iMac, I don’t use OL, OE, etc. at all. OE is installed, but it’s not configured to send or receive email on any account.
  5. I sometimes use a PC (Win95 – don’t laugh! :smiley: ) to check this email address, but, again, it’s always with a web browser.
  6. I have an extensive address book at Yahoo!, but some of the recipients of “my” viruses are not in the address book.
  7. I occassionally receive emails at my Yahoo! address that are large in size (155kb and up), but have no text in the body. The sender and subject, however, are usually familiar or seem reasonable.
  8. Yahoo!'s tech support is no help with this. :rolleyes:

So…

How could I be sending email viruses? What can I do to stop them? All I can figure is that someone else is sending the viruses (unintentionally, I’m assuming) and using my address as the sender.

Thanks to all who read this and especially thanks to those who have an effective solution.

#2

The Klez virus is known to forge the return address when it mails itself. What this means is that someone who has both your email address and the people who recieved the virus’s address in their address book. The virus is sending itself to them and faking your email address as the sender. Those ~150K mystery messages you are getting are also copies of the Klez virus, with forged return addresses.

#3

The Klez virus is known to forge the return address when it mails itself. What this means is that someone who has both your email address and the people who recieved the virus’s address in their address book. The virus is sending itself to them and faking your email address as the sender. Those mystery ~155K blank emails you’re getting are copies of the virus, with faked return addresses.

#4

So, even though the viruses are going around with my name on them, they really have nothing to do with me. Are those large, blank emails a problem (aside from clogging my inbox)? Other viruses I’ve received come as file attachments. These blank emails don’t have attachments or any visible content at all, except that the size is reported as rather large. I don’t see how Klez can attack my iMac, especially through a browser.