Rob and everyone interested...
Rob, you may NOT actually have a virus on your system...
Virus's have become pretty sophisticated lately. For the last year or so there have been new "smart" virus's unleashed on the public. These "smart" virus's take addresses from your Microsoft Outlook Address Book (or equivilant) and sends itself to these people. But it also takes another random email address from your address book and uses this as the "from" address. This way the real computer can't be traced and the virus can run rampant!
For instance, let's say YOUR computer is virus free. However, a friend of yours DOES have the virus. He's also got your email address in his Address Book, along with several other's. When he connects to the internet, the virus sends itself out to several of the email address's in the Address Book and takes YOUR email address and places it in the "Senders" name. Any "bounced" emails will get returned to YOU and NOT your friend, who actually has the virus!! Pretty smart huh! Also, the virus has its own "engine" (or, way to send the mail), so your internet service provider has no way of blocking it from going. They CAN block it from getting to the recipient (virus protections programs like Norton, etc...) but when they send the notice that there was a virus in the email, it goes to YOU and NOT your friend!!
How to rectify this: Unfortunately, most of these new virus's can detect when your virus program starts a scan and "hides". When the scan is done and has found "no virus's" on your computer, it reappears and starts all over again. There ARE ways of getting rid of these virus's but it takes a lot of "manual" work and the person has to know that he has a virus in the first place! Most of the time he doesn't until it's too late.
If you need more info on these new "smart" virus's, you can go to
Symantec and get the latest...
Ed