Hotmail email hack? :(

[Concept]

Hey all. I just recently received a very odd 'postal delivery failure' from AOL in a failed delivery of an email to someone I've never even emailed before or heard of? :/

Now I'm on Zen Internet, and in tracing the IP address back to ntl (not hard, look below) it seems someone's either used my account or spoofed it from a different service provider. In reporting the abuse to NTL, my computer froze and a suspicious program tried to bipass Zone Alarm to access the net (to be specific Windows NT High Contrast). Have I been hacked and how ridiculously easy is it to break into hotmail? It seems as if the person clearly wasn't conscious enough to conceal their address, unless they're masquerading as someone else. Any advice on what I should do bar contacting NTL and MSN?

The original message was received at Mon, 20 Mar 2006 15:01:31 -0500 (EST)
from spr1-norw4-4-0-cust168.asfd.broadband.ntl.com [81.108.169.169]


*** ATTENTION ***

Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its
delivery. The address which was undeliverable is listed in the section
labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----".

The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section
labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could
not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a
general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail
administrator.

--AOL Postmaster



----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<[email protected]>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to air-yg01.mail.aol.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 554 TRANSACTION FAILED - Unrepairable Virus Detected. Your mail has not been
sent.
554 <[email protected]>... Service unavailable

[Cobertizo]

I wouldn't worry excessively. Loads of viruses fake the reply-to line, so that the virus appears to come from a different email address. You may as well follow all the usual precautions like running a virus scan, and perhaps change your Hotmail password, but I would have thought that you are just seeing the side effects of a virus on someone else's system...

[MartyG]

Aye, I've had a couple of these too to various accounts. I stopped running an email client on my PC 24/7 a while ago, before I d/l any email from my ISP now, I use the web interface to delete any spam.

[Concept]

That's a possibility. Someone may have got hold of my email address, placed it in their address book and never replied to me until (it could be) an IM/email attachment virus spams their address book listings. Either way, it's an annoyance.