Downloading Email - Craigs List

Have older Dell with XP Pro SP2, with Micro Tech PC-cillin running on a personal computer. For email it checks for compressed files through layer 1. I also have a work portable with XP Pro SP2 with a corporate version of symantec and also Spybot Search and Destroy. All MS OS current updates have been installed on both computers. I do manual scans once/week religiously. PC-cillin does auto daily updates, while I manually update symantec virus definitions usually every monday/friday.

Hesitate to install any other software per your steps 1-5 instructions since above PC-cillin anti-virus SW specifically required that i delete any other like products before it's install. I am not suppose to install any software on the work computer other than symantec and Spybot which they provided, without their permission even though i have adm privileges.

A couple of days ago, I placed an ad on Craig's List San Diego using my personal computer and within a couple of minutes received an email titled Interested in your Craigs List ad. I was suprised how quickly I got a response. I opened the email and PC-cillin scanned it and didn't find anything wrong. I provided an address for a pickup of a stereo cabinet but received no further response from the hotmail.com account which responded to the ad.

About a day or two later my personal computer on my home network had a pop up on boot up saying my user settings were corrupted and default settings were going to be used. I cancelled this action and did a successful re-start. Computer seemed to boot OK will all my personal settings intact.

A day later the work computer which is on the same network also had the same pop up indicating it's personnel settings were corrupted and default settings were going to be installed - same thing as personal computer. I again cancelled, and did a reboot with everything appearing normal. I did PC-cillin scan on personal machine and symantec and Spybot on work machine and these programs have found nothing wrong. All three programs are up to date with latest patches/virus definitions.

Since both machines had same issue, is it possible that the Craigs List email (I don't ever respond to email from strangers otherwise) had malware that PC-cillin didn't detect and it also infected the other work computer which was also on-line during that time (although on a VPN connection to my corporate network). The work computer initially boots up in the clear on the home network, then I use a personal ID card and VPN software to connect to my corporate network.

Two things appeared odd, both computers trying to load a default version of personal settings on boot-up and the email response to Craigs List which appearred suprisingly rapid - perhaps someone has hacked into Craigs List server and it is responding to all ads placed there with bogus email responses, suckering potential sellers into opening email that they otherwise would not have?

Any known problems of this type been reported? Boy I would really hate to re-format HD and re-install everything on both computers unless you think that is warranted.

Thanks for your opinion

Tim