Virus in address book?

Here's the problem my friend has. She sends an email or replies to an email from a friend( only one address is affected) and that email never reaches the intended party. It goes to a complete stranger who in fact she tells me is very nasty. I have not gotten a response from her as yet regarding her anti virus but I'm sure she is using one. What does she have to do to get this fixed?

 

Could it be that she has entered the e-mail address incorrectly in her Address Book?

 

No, she has the correct address

 

ladyLuck --If this occurs only when your friend replies to a message from her friend, the reason could be that her friend's PC is infected with a virus that is sending messages without the friend knowing. In fact these messages could contain a virus.
But if your friend is starting the chain by sending a new, fresh message to her friend and such a message is being misdirected, then, as a first step I would suggest your friend delete the address of her friend from her Address Book and reenter it.
As a second step, I think your friend's friend should scan her PC's with an antivirus tool. Especially if she does not have one. (Of course the same suggestion applies to your friend, if she determines she does not have antivirus. Even if she does, does your friend regularly update the virus definitions??)
A free on line scan is available here
http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall/
but I think it best to eventually install a antivirus program. Norton and McAfee are well know suppliers, but they charge. A free one is AVG
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

 

Welshjim, thank you. I kind of thought she had a virus.

If she runs a virus check, and one is found, will she be able to delete it or is this going to be a complicated matter?.

 

ladyLuck--Cannot answer in advance. If your friend's friend finds a virus and understands how to operate an Antivirus program it should be fairly easy to take care of the problem. But the first thing is to find out if a virus exists.
P.S. While not very important, I should have mentioned that any virus is notin the Address Book, but rather on the PC's hard drive. The virus (if it exists) just is able to access the Address Book.

 

Welshjim, Thanks for all your input. Appreciate it. I surely will pass this on.