Many thanks to everyone who has responded to this, both on and off list. Your advice is much appreciated. (I've started using Mozilla mail myself now for MS stuff).
I've now had a look at the lady's PC and can see what the problems are. First is that she is running XP and it has never had a security update applied. It has no firewall or anti-virus software. It turns out that the problem is two-fold - 'normal' e-mail spam, but the main problem is Messenger Spam pop-ups. She's running a dial-up (slow) AOL connection, so getting all the security updates (about 25MB) will take some time. I've shown her how to do the updates and will see how she's getting on next visit. I'll probably enable the XP firewall and disable the Messenger service. She seems more at ease now that she realises that the spam is indiscriminate - she's now more angry than upset - which is probably better! Thanks again for all the advice. I haven't responded individually to any of the emails I've received but I have read them all and taken the advice on board. Dougie
