I had the same problem, yesterday, Marcey. My screen was flooded by Symantec warnings that my computer was sending (or trying to send) thousands of spam emails. I thought it might be a problem with my Symantec, so I uninstalled it and installed McAfee's Internet Security Suite 2006.
Immediately, McAfee started popping up a window to warn me that my computer was sending spam emails all over the place! So, in my opinion, BOTH Symantec AND McAfee were correct with their warnings, and the problem had to be a virus.
I updated the McAfee virus scan to be sure I had the latest version (which as of last night was DAT 4660) and ran a scan. I found a virus (that my Symantec scan had missed) called Proxy-Agent.aj. Virus deleted, problem solved. The definition of this virus is that it enslaves your computer and turns it into a sort of spam-email server (sound familiar?).
BTW, I have no interest or connection with McAfee, but it worked for me. If you go this route, be SURE to update the virus scan, for the product is sold with an outdated version. On your McAfee Security Center window, click on scan, then look at the bottom right of that page to see the version it is using. If it is not DAT 4660, update it or it will NOT find the Proxy-Agent.aj virus.
Good luck!
Red
