Thank you Ripley and fadedspirit for trying to help. I tried to solve this on my own but was afraid I couldn't get rid of it. I took it to a computer specialist I know and he's working on it. For now I'm using my daughters computer. This virus was so bad - it embedded itself in my toolbar, saying there's a virus and I need to buy a program from them. It kept popping up and I would have to reject it, to get it off the screen. Then it would pop up every 10 seconds. It would also suddenly shut off the laptop and yesterday it sent old emails out of my 'sent folder' and re-sent them to people - embarassing.

I had virus protection but I know they're not always 100%. If this ever happens again should I immediately stop the computer? Where do they come from and who sends them? This is so maddening.