O/T MSN Messenger Virus

[box_one]

Any one know if there is a virus running loose in Windows Live Messenger?

My mates PC keeps sending out HTTP links to everyone on his contact list 3 or 4 times per day! - he has the latest software from Norton and AVG but they say everything is fine!

Its driving me and a load of his other mates mad ! - any guidance would be appreciated

[gee_fin]

There are lots of MSN viruses out there. One I keep seeing is a random message that pops up from various contacts along the lines of

'you have to see this photo of my cousin before i put it on Facebook' or similar, and then they want you to accept a .zip file. Usually called photo_jpeg.zip or similar.

Just close it, and email/phone/contact them telling them to scan their computer.

[box_one]

Thanks for the response

Problem is though scanning the computer doesn't pick up any things wrong!

So its either a new virus they don't know about yet to issue an update or something else more sinister is afoot!

[mogwi]

It's almost impossible to detect or remove,  Norton, AVG, PCGuard or any other anti-virus did not find anything on our PC.  We were, apparently, sending 'odd' messages to our contacts.  Someone recommended 'Kaspersky' (big mistake   ) as the only one that would find the bug, it did.... But, it also wholly took over the PC to the point were it would not boot up fully (only as far as the antivirus) and would not even boot in safe mode.

Eventually, after several days, we wiped the HDD and reformatted.  A bit extreme, but it worked.

I'm sure the 'puter geeks out there could find a less extreme remedy.  Also, I don't recommend Kaspersky, I think it compounded the problem.

Happy New Year, by the way.