Thanks, Chaos. I never thought of that possibility--that the virus not a person was the hacker. It just seemed tied to that email address though as I said a few times my other one @pacbell did likewise. Both were checked through Yahoo Mail.
I just checked the "security report" to see the breakdown, and already since this morning 2 more websites have been blocked. I swear I don't have any interest let alone attempt in checking out unsafe or unscrupulous sites! Besides this forum, I'm only a member of 3 others. Otherwise, I just check email, look at a few coupon sites, and an occasional Google Search. Nothing "fancy."
My modem is an external one that plugs into the computer. When I got this new computer, (like any other) I had to call the phone company to have them help me set up the DSL connection.
My dad, for example, also has an external modem. However he never touches his. There's no turning it on/off. It's simply always connected. He turns on his pc, gets it running and is set to open IE. I first have to click onto establishing a connection, etc. (and,of course, turn on the modem).
I do think it is sort of suspicious that after 10 years an email address would go awry but then I know in the virtual world there are all sorts of evil viruses etc. As I said, since closing that account, the spam has stopped. It'll be interesting to see if the next security report reflects more positive things. I have Trend Micro and when I do full scans, nothing pops up.
As for the "Health Check," yes every now and then HP does an automatic "PC Tune Up/Health Check." I don't know how to run that without the prompt.
I guess I could try another Yahoo email and see what happens. I would appreciate hearing thoughts on free emails if anyone cares to share. Just no gmail for me!
Thank you all again,
Mona
