Virus in email

[ChrisiusMaximus]

hello all, not sure if this is the right place for this but i got a email from my sister this afternoon about a nasty virus doing the rounds. Ive forwarded to my contacts but thought id share with poly too, hope no one gets hit by this !

> PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE
>
>Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the
>moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will
not
>be able to fix it!
>
>
>If you get an email along the lines of "Osama Bin Laden Captured"
>
>or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment.
>
>This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe,
but
>mainly in the US and Israel.
>
>Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know.
>
>PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:
>
>
>You should be alert during the next days:
>Do not open any message with an attached filed called
>
>
>"Invitation" regardless of who sent it.
>
>
>It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard
disc
>C of your computer.
>
>
>This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in

>his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all
your
>contacts.
>
>
>It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus
and
>open it.
>
>
>If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do
not
>open it and shut down your computer immediately.
>
>
>This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by
>Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
>
>
>This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair
yet
>for this kind of virus.
>
>This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the
>vital information is kept.
>
>
>PLEASE PASS ON

[Mercator]

Don't *ever* do that again.

I'm 99% sure that that virus doesn't exist. What you got was a hoax. Their only purpose is to scare people and make them forward an annoying virus warning e-mail around.

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/threatexplorer/risks/hoaxes.jsp

http://www.virushoaxbusters.com/

[Locutus]

All, still plenty of ignorant people in the world, I see I don't get to use it very often anymore, but I used to get so many of these I wrote a standard reply:


Hey ChrisiusMaximus,

This is a hoax, not a genuine virus warning. Like all hoaxes, it is best ignored. See here for details on this specific hoax.

Added is some info on what hoaxes are and why they are bad, should you be interested.

Wouter



From: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxInfo.html

What Are Internet Hoaxes and Chain Letters?

Internet hoaxes and chain letters are e-mail messages written with one purpose; to be sent to everyone you know. The messages they contain are usually untrue. A few of the sympathy messages do describe a real situation but that situation was resolved years ago so the message is not valid and has not been valid for many years. Hoax messages try to get you to pass them on to everyone you know using several different methods of social engineering. Most of the hoax messages play on your need to help other people. Who wouldn't want to warn their friends about some terrible virus that is destroying people's systems? Or, how could you not want to help this poor little girl who is about to die from cancer? It is hard to say no to these messages when you first see them, though after a few thousand have passed through your mail box you (hopefully) delete them without even looking.

Chain letters are lumped in with the hoax messages because they have the same purpose as the hoax messages but use a slightly different method of coercing you into passing them on to everyone you know. Chain letters, like their printed ancestors, generally offer luck or money if you send them on. They play on your fear of bad luck and the realization that it is almost trivial for you to send them on. The chain letters that deal in money play on people's greed and are illegal no matter what they say in the letter.


The risk and Cost of Hoaxes

The cost and risk associated with hoaxes may not seem to be that high, and isn't when you consider the cost of handling one hoax on one machine. However, if you consider everyone that receives a hoax, that small cost gets multiplied into some pretty significant costs. For example, if everyone on the Internet were to receive one hoax message and spend one minute reading and discarding it, the cost would be something like:

50,000,000 people * 1/60 hour * $50/hour = $41.7 million

Most people have seen far more than one hoax message and many people cost a business far more than $50 per hour when you add in benefits and overhead. The result is not a small number.

Probably the biggest risk for hoax messages is their ability to multiply. Most people send on the hoax messages to everyone in their address books but consider if they only sent them on to 10 people. The first person (the first generation) sends it to 10, each member of that group of 10 (the second generation) sends it to 10 others or 100 messages and so on.

[B]y the sixth generation there are a million e-mail messages being processed by our mail servers. The capacity to handle these messages must be paid for by the users or, if it is not paid for, the mail servers slow down to a crawl or crash. Note that this example only forwards the message to 10 people at each generation while people who forward real hoax messages often send them to many times that number.

Recently, we have been hearing of spammers (bulk mailers of unsolicited mail) harvesting e-mail addresses from hoaxes and chain letters. After a few generations, many of these letters contain hundreds of good addresses, which is just what the spammers want. We have also heard rumors that spammers are deliberately starting hoaxes and chain letters to gather e-mail addresses (of course, that could be a hoax). So now, all those nice people who were so worried about the poor little girl dying of cancer (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBSympathy.shtml#girldying) find themselves not only laughed at for passing on a hoax but also the recipients of tons of spam mail.


More info (on how to recognize/respond to hoaxes, list of known hoaxes, etc): http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

[DrSpike]

At least it's not a hoax telling you you are safe if you delete a certain file, that is usually something useful.

[Colon™]

Rule # 23 of internet: If a mail has got "FWD:" in the title, hit "delete".

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Colon™
Rule # 23 of internet: If a mail has got "FWD:" in the title, hit "delete".

*gasp* I'm not the only one then...

[Urban Ranger]

Generally, you can't get hosed by opening an e-mail message. Attachments, on the other hand, are far more dangerous.

[Colon™]

That's not the issue UR. The issue is that FWD mails are never worth your time.

[Datajack Franit]

OMHGGG people posting their spam on internet forums

[DrSpike]

Literally and figuratively.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
OMHGGG people posting their spam on internet forums

Looks like there are also nigerian Scammers who post their mails into comment boxes

http://www.andromedatv.com/episodes/season4/epi_422.html

(look at the left side, "Episode Comments", the comment I mean is from 7/30 [should be the second comment within the box])