I have a hotmail account that has never received any spam or unwanted emails in the three years that I've had it. Recently, a family member forwarded an email to me which had originally been sent from another relative. The forwarded email was also addressed to three other people.

A few days later I started getting several unwanted emails that are either spam or a worm. They have fairly large attachments but all of varying sizes. I didn't open any, but I'm tempted to, to see if I can find out where they came from (like if one of the relatives email addresses appear in it).

My question is: are these unwanted emails most likely the result of the forwarded email I received? I'm thinking perhaps one of the other recipients has a worm they don't know about.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Email is a favourite method of transfer of dubious material and attachments are the most insidious.

Do you have anti virus, regularly updated, on your system and set to examine all of your email/downloads?? And anti spy/ad/malware programs??

It is easy to check when you receive an email from a friend/family that contains an attachment you were not informed about first - email them to check that they did indeed send it AND virus checked it before they sent it!