Address Book Hghjack ... maybe

[RonH]

I use Windows 7/Windows Live Mail.

Some days ago I received an email which was clearly a form of spam (if that's the correct word) since the sender had no knowledge, the email was 'make easy money'...the 'senders' address book had clearly been compromised. There was no email attachment.
Just now I downloaded an email from 'me' to 'me' (A different 'make easy money' one) which I did not initiate and on further investigation within its Properties/Details/Message Source it seems that this email 'originated' in Holland ... hmm, Hans . As yet I do not know if others in my Address Book have received spam from me. I have scanned with my AV (MSE) and Malwarebytes plus done a registry check & clean using CCleaner ... nothing found. Is there anything else I should/could do to resolve this issue? Maybe its a 'one off'' hit?

Thanks Ron

[HansV]

A common trick used by spammers is to set the sender address to that of the recipient, assuming that the recipient will not block messages from himself/herself. So the message that you received does *not* imply that you actually sent it. On the contrary, you were able to trace it to another country, so it was definitely not from you.
There is no way to keep spammers from doing this. Just be alert and throw away all messages that you don't trust.

[RonH]

Thanks Hans ... up early like me ha,

Good to know this about spammer methods. It was the close proximity of both 'spams' that made me make the possible association between them.
If it was 'from me' eg my address book, are there actions I can take to 'clean' other than those I have detailed above.

[HansV]

Again, I think it's extremely unlikely that you are sending those messages yourself, but you could watch for unusual activity of your internet modem/router. If there's a high rate of outgoing traffic while you're not causing it yourself, that might warrant further investigation. But don't worry if there's some activity even while you're not active - many programs monitor for updates almost constantly nowadays.