junk e-mail problem

[Lord Valumart]

so my mums getting all these emails, like 30 a day, that say that delivery to some email address she's never heard of has failed.

could someone tell me:
1. what's caused this to happen?
2. how do i fix it?

any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Spelunking Man]

so my mums getting all these emails, like 30 a day, that say that delivery to some email address she's never heard of has failed.

could someone tell me:
1. what's caused this to happen?

Okay my assumptions:

1. This usually happens when your mom receiving a junk mail from a sender and she tries to unsubscribe it by replying back to the sender. The sender receives the email from your mum, knowing it is a real email address, he sends more and probably notify a spam syndicate that this address really exists.

2. Your mum has disclosed her email address at some untrusted website, probably a sales-oriented website.

3. Your mum's friend inadvertently disclosed your mum's email address using the same methods above.

4. Your mum's friend computer was attacked by a virus or a spyware. The virus/spyware then propagate using his/her email address book which contains your mum's email address.

5. The ISP is using an open relay email server or a weak/unpatched email system and uses it to launch mass spam emails to others. Click here to learn more -> http://www.spamhaus.org/ This will not be the case if your mum is using notable web-based email service such as Hotmail, GMail or Yahoo! Mail. Their email servers are really hard to crack.

2. how do i fix it?

any help would be appreciated, thanks

1. Contact your ISP of this problem, perhaps they can block them for you. Some ISP offers self-service, like web access POP account, you can configure antispam rules.

2. Scan your mum's PC for spyware or other malicious software, update your anti virus and anti-spyware definitions. Use Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ and Microsoft Defender www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx for free Anti-Spyware solutions

3. Download all the necessary security software patches from Microsoft for your Windows OS

4. Enable Windows Firewall and install a third-party firewall to screen incoming and outbound transmissions such as Zone Labs http://www.zonelabs.com/

Hope this helps.