Hi Jack, Apparently someone is going after AOL in a big way. For the past two month I have been getting emails from six or ten times weekly from different aol addresses advertising replica watches. I never really paid attention...just hit delete until one day I got one and it had MY husbands address on it as the sender. I immediately had him change his password. The emails continue to come ALL with aol addresses and I continued to hit delete NEVER clicking on the link it was trying to send me. Two weeks ago I got one from MY OWN email address. I changed my password (which seems to be aol's "fix all" in this type of situation). I don't think THEY (aol) know how this is happening. Jack, I am truly sorry for what has happened to you. Although I "back up" on a regular basis I think I would be devastated if something that drastic happened to me. The "stranded in Europe" was going around last summer on yahoo addresses with several of my friends involved, but I haven't seen any from aol yet. At that time it was just a money scam, not compromising or purging any of my friends information that I know of. I hope you are able to retrieve some of your information. Regards, Karen P. S. As I was typing this I checked my SPAM folder (where these messages have been going) and sure enough there was one in there. I hesitate to copy and paste the message part here for you to see in case some one would click on it by accident but here is the address part. From: rob217@aol.com Subject: How to appear Successful in modern society Date: February 21, 2010 1:55:24 AM EST To: rob217@aol.com. On Feb 21, 2010, at 3:00 AM, aolers-rootsweb-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:03:09 EST > From: Jackbowk@aol.com > Subject: Re: [AOL-RW] AOLERS-ROOTSWEB - address book hacked/files > blank > To: aolers-rootsweb@rootsweb.com > Joan, et al - > > Just turned on my computer to find my system has been attacked and a > message of alarm sent to all my address book that I'm stranded in > Europe and > need help - send money etc. My address book is now empty - > completely purged > - my mail boxes are empty - and the files I've saved to AOL also. > The > false message has my name in the Subject line, and is apparently > sent from > "joanaspen@aol.com', as if I'm using her computer (whoever she > is). Advice on > how to proceed please. > > Jack > > In a message dated 1/15/2010 11:21:33 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > jyoung6180@aol.com writes: > > I'd call back and if you get the same advice I'd ask to speak to a > supervisor and explain in detail that there must be something wrong > with > you > accent (the mailbox anyway) that is causing this to happen. See if > that > helps. > > Joan