A new virus?

[mesteno1]

Yes i have been recieving what seem to be an unusualy large number of spam emails. What ever you DO DO NOT TOUCH ANY THING FOR I.E.EXPLORER PATCHES REPAIRS FREE OFFERS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT ,, ONE MORE THING IF YOU FREQUENT MICROSOFT UP-DATE PAGE BE VERY CARFUL
WHAT YOU DO I BELIEVE THAT IS WHERE I GOT A VIRUS FROM. IT IS A FIGURATIVLY SLOW MOVING VIRUS AND IT MESSES WITH IE EXPLORER FIRST YOU START GETTING ERROR REPORTS SYSTEM WIDE THEN STARTS LOCALIZING IN YOUR BROWSER FEED OVER INTO WINDOWS EXPLORER IN THE END WHEN YOU YOU TRY BOOT YOUR YOU COMPUTER JUST BEFORE YOUR DESK TOP APPEARS , ALL THAT IS VEIWABLE ON SCREEN WILL BE YOUR START BUTTON, AT THIS POINT , WINDOWS EXPLORER SAYS IT HAS CREATED AN ERROR IN SOME WIERD FOLDER TELLS YOU TO TRY RESTARTING YOUR COMPUTER BUT YOU WONT BEABLE TO NOR WILL YOU BE ABLE TO START IN SAFTY MODE AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE YOU WILL HAVE TO REFORMAT YOUR PC YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM , I KNOW CAUSE I JUST DID THIS. NOT EVEN MY EMERGENCY BOOT DISC WOULD WORK. I LOST ALL MY ART POETRYSOME RATHER RARE PROGRAMS THAT ARE IRRIPLACABLE. SO BE EXTREEMLY CARFULL EVEN WITH WINDOWS UPDATE PAGES, OR ANTHING TO DO WITH WINDOWS EXPLORER IE EXPLORERE


MESTENO1

[gwpriester]

It used to be I opened almost every piece of e-mail I received. I often get messages requesting help from all over the place.

Now I never download e-mail without going first through mail-washer, although it does not really flag virus infected messages. I have "previewed" a few messages on the server only to find they contain viruses which Norton Simon has caught and quarentined.

So now, if it is not someone I know, it is out it go(es).

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[Judi A]

I have received this sucker 3 times this week. the subject is: (see graphic)

This is what the subject looks like. My virus program notifies me that it has a virus, but I can't delete it in my Pegasus mail program, I have to delete it in program manager than empty the trash bin. It is some kind of html thing but that is all I know.

Judi

My Stuff

[Renaud]

For those who don't know that, some virus start themselves when you read the mail, by using some VB or JS code. For Outlook the solution is to disable the preview pane, so potentialy dangerous unfiltered mail should not open only as yon click on the message name. To open, you would have to double-click, and the message would open in a new window.
Now, if you receive a mail and you are not sure of it's content, right click on the mail and read properties... if there is any doubt, mark it as read, delete it, and then empty the "deleted items" folder.

Hope that will help...

[raffon]

Add the name !!!000000 to your address book with no email address. If you get one of these worms that use the address book to spread themselves, this will be at the beginning of the list and you will get an error message saying no email address you will then know you are infected and can take the appropriate action.

Ich bin ein New Yorker

[diniel]

It'll sit in your system tray and whenever you collect email - either manually or automatically, Norton steps in and acts as a proxy between your email program and your email server.

Norton downloads your email and then checks it for viruses before passing it into Outlook/Pegasus/Outlook Express/whatever.

It takes no extra time to download, takes no effort, and you need set nothing up. Just install Norton Antivirus and that's it.

Provided you keep the virus definition files up-to-date, you can be more confident that you're not about to open another email. It'll stop you from receiving any more Badtrans, Sircam or Klez viruses right away, and as soon as the definition files are updated after the next monster is discovered, then you'll get no more of those either.

Best thing to do is to get yourself signed up with the Trend and SARC mailing list notifications, which send out warnings of each new "big" virus, and as soon as you get the email from them, force an update.

For obvious reasons, this doesn't mean you can open any attachment you like without worrying, but over 99% will get stopped at the door.

If you run the firewall from ZoneLabs or Outlook 2002, you can't accidentally open .pif or .exe virus attachemnts anyway.

[raffon]

Breaking news!!!

Atlanta, Ga. (SatireWire.com) Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that "foot-and-mouth" disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus.

"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit.

The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will save millions of pounds and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that both foot-and-mouth and mad cow were spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Nick Brown, Britain's Agriculture Minister. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."

However, researchers in the Netherlands, where foot-and-mouth has recently appeared, said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook, which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You," "Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few.

Said Nils Overmars, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Leiden University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that as scientists, we are trained to be skeptical of any finding that flies in the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a blind drunk sparrow."

Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to foot-and-mouth.

Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask if the foot-and-mouth virus spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?"

Copyright 2001, SatireWire

Ich bin ein New Yorker

[rockymtnwulf]

I would like to start by saying hello to all the forum members...this is my first post.

Gary, you wrote:
So now, if it is not someone I know, it is out it go(es).

Gary, I know spam is a huge problem on the Internet. Heck, I had to drop several e-mail addresses over the years due to the outrageous amount of spam. However, you helped me in the past. Someone you did not know. If it was not for you opening up my e-mail (which was from someone you did not know) then who would have helped me with the design for my father's tombstone (doesn't that bring a tear to your eye) . I have been contemplating and fighting with myself as to whether or not I should go to an Art College. After talking to you through e-mail and the first time in several years, you have sent me on a path to pursue graphic design (though some would construe this as a bad decision on my part). Gary, it has been you who has inspired me to design and whom I hold a high regard. I know viruses and spam are something no one wants to deal with. I ask you to keep this in mind, if you delete the e-mails from someone you do not know, then who wins. The spammers do and the person out there like myself who needed a nudge in the right direction and help loses. What I ask is that you give everyone the same help you gave me. I thank you again Gary for your time and your help!

Now that I am off my soapbox, here is some info I have come across and feel I should share. There is a script written in JavaScript http://www.joemaller.com/js-mailer.shtml which will break your e-mail address into two parts. This is oblivious to the surfer and will display on your site as a normal e-mail link. It is very easy to use and will prevent the spiders and bots from grabbing your e-mail address. Now, when you register a web site, your name, e-mail address, home address, etc. is listed in Network Solutions WHOIS database http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois (this web site is a spammers dream) and although it is a royal pain to remove this info or change it, it can be done. Another way to deal with spam is to contact the FTC and or forward the spam to the FTC at https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01.

As far as faxes/telephone calls, Colorado was so kind enough to pass a law to protect us from many unwanted telemarketing calls. There is a web site to put your telephone number on the Do Not Call List. This page has links which should be helpful to Non-Coloradoans but is just for the States http://www.coloradonocall.com/index....seaction=Links.

Remember, your best defense is a good offense. A firewall (Zonelabs) and anti-virus (Norton) should be your offense.

I hope this helps...

Pauly

[gwpriester]

Good to have you here.

I should clarify about not opening mail from persons I do not know.

If the message is very small in size 1-2K, and does not contain subjects such as increasing my personal wealth or increating certain parts of my body, but looks like it might be a legitimate message, I take a chance.

But larger messages 10K and above, more than likely contain an HTML script and these are the ones I avoid like the plague, unless I am certain who sent it. And even then, I received a virus infected message from a colleague of mine whose web site I provide images for, just last night. Norton AntiVirus 2002 caught it and quarentined the message. I wrote to him immediately and informed him.

Norton AntiVirus 2002 also checks your outgoing e-mail so if you get a virus, you will not spread it.

Of course, it can only do this if you keep your DAT files up to date.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[john713]

Yes, mail washer is a very effective tool. It was mentioned in another thread a while back I think. I have bee using it since and have decreased the spam I was getting more than half. Plus it is an added protection against viruses because it doesn't download the email. It only list what is on the mail server.

John Furr