ip address and security issues

hi, i know some stuff but not a lot about ips and security, i am currently running xp on mediacom cable i have zonealarm pro the trial version i previously was using the zonealarm free download and i have adaware 6.0 i just downloaded the FXBeagle from symantec and have run that program.....my issue is that i have been getting strange emails on my yahoo email...i had about a week or so ago gotten an email from a military address that said a virus was detected in the .pif i sent but i had not sent an email to that address and i don't know what .pif is ...in the last few days i have gotten two different emails one came from [email protected] within that email was some text stating that they had received complaints that i was sending spam and my system probably had a trojan and i should use the attached zip file with the following password...i thought it was a fishy email and have not opened the attachment...on the yahoo email page there is a link regarding important virus information and there it says that emails showing a sender of administration@ could contain a virus...so i am trying to find more info about both of the above...i know that i have changed my ip address in the past, but apparently it is not the internet ip? my comp tech guy that updated my hard drive ram processor is about 3.5 hours from me and he had me do some things with my ip so he could work on my comp from his...any info is appreciated thanks

These things you are seeing are all related to the latest virus activity on the net. It's at an all time high and currently seem to revolve around three main families, Netsky, Beagle & Mydoom.
Go to Symantec and read up on these viruses, you will find that they are the result of your problems.

Cheers:

Good point! These problems will only increase and the probable best to handle emails is to only open the ones you know who the sender is to to delete those that are 35k or 7k in size. Better to dump a message than to open it and have several days worth of work to eliminate the virus.

Thanks, I was reading some of the other security threads yesterday and one person was told to use the cleaner i have downloaded that from the link listed on the thread and I have run it, all of the programs i have run come back saying no trojans beagles what have you any other suggestions?

It is probable that your yahoo email addy has been spoofed by a virus that is resending it self to others. There is nothing really that you can do about that. You have also received a couple of virus's, the [email protected] being one of them. If you had opened the zip, you would have been infected by a virus or worm that is using that form to replicate. Yahoo, Hotmail, or any of the large portals will never send you a fix through your email. They will, if they even send you anything, refer you to a site that will offer a fix for the problem.