Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Hotmail Hijacks on the rise?

I once read from CNET or family member to do this immediately!
Go to your contact list and type in a ficticious name starting with the letter A........Be sure to include letters,
numbers and symbols into that FICTICIOUS name, and same thing with making up a LAST NAME.
START with the letter A, since all contact lists are alphabetical, right?

Example: AbcZyx123098#@=%@badvirus.com

That way, should anyone ATTEMPT to get ahold of your email list, there's NO SUCH NAME or domain
to copy email list from and pass on their nasty virus, or any other junk, to unsuspecting others, get it?
I HAVE HAD NO MORE PROBLEMS SINCE DOING THIS, AND AM DARNED GLAD, TOO!
~Pat Burton from El Cajon, CA.

Yes, I have had this happen to me on 2 occasions now, where the first indication of a problem is 100's of error mesages from other "spammed" email addresses coming into my inbox from replies to emails sent out from my mail account, which of course I have NOT sent.
It does not send out these emails to anyone in my contacts list.

On another occasion, messages advertising or extolling the virtues of various medications and/or beauty products (which I certainly would not have used !!) were sent out to a limited number of addresses from my contacts list! These resulted in a certain degree of embarrassment for me and the contacts concerned!

I just try to minimise this nuisance by frequent running of my anti-spyware programs (free from CNET downloads - malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, and AVGfree v9.

Hasn't happened recently but won't really know if I've solved it unless I don't get a recurrence for say 6-9 months!!

Hope this helps, Dave J