Author |
Message |
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 6:56 am
I have actually been sent both of these several times..thank goodness I never open attachments! Here are portions of an article from today's Washington Post: Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail From FBI, CIA By Arshad Mohammed and Brian Krebs It's being called the worst computer worm of the year -- a fast-spreading Internet threat that looks like an official e-mail from the CIA or FBI but can leave your computer wide open to intruders. The bogus e-mail claims the government has discovered you visiting "illegal" Web sites and asks you to open an attachment to answer some official questions. If you do, your computer gets infected with malware that can disable security and firewall programs and blast out similar e-mails to contacts in your address book. It can also keep you from getting to computer security Web sites that might help fix the problem, and it may open your Windows computer to intruders who can steal your personal data. The e-mail informs the recipient that the user's "IP-address" has accessed more than 30 illegal Web sites and that the attachment contains a list of questions that need to be answered. The e-mail also includes an authentic phone number for the FBI or CIA. And here's another one, in a warning from McAfee: CURRENT THREAT W32Sober@MM!M681 Medium Risk DAT Required: 4629 Virus Advisory What is it? A variant of W32/Sober.gen@MM, W32/Sober@MM!M681 is another mass-mailing worm hiding inside a spam email attachment. When run, the virus displays a fake error message, infects the host computer then sends itself to stolen email addresses. Note: VirusScan users with the latest DAT file are protected from this threat. What should I look for? FROM: Varies SUBJECT: Examples: Registration Confirmation; Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie; hi, ive a new mail address BODY: Example: hey its me, my old address dont work at time. i dont know why?! in the last days ive got some mails. i' think thaz your mails but im not sure! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER open an attachment in an e-mail without first confirming with the sender that they sent you an attachment - even if the sender is someone you know. Today's viruses can take over someone's computer and send out e-mails to everyone on its address book, and virus e-mails often have "spoof" (fake) sender addresses (even if you check the headers).
|
Jbean
Member
01-05-2002
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:06 am
i got 2 of these on tuesday in my email. thank goodness for virus protection!
|
Jimmer
Member
08-30-2000
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:19 am
I've received two today as well, but my ISP deleted the attachment before it reached my computer. This is a warning that is worth paying attention to.
|
Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:30 am
This is why is rocks to have a mac!!!
|
Finqwik
Member
09-23-2000
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:41 am
I got 2 of these emails a couple of days ago ( to 2 seperate email accounts) and deleted them right away. You have to be pretty thick to think they are real. In my case a)I'm Canadian who the heck cares what the FBI think/want b)What is an illegal web site anyway? Illegal in which country?
|
Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:43 am
I meant "This is why it rocks to have a mac!!!"
|
Jimmer
Member
08-30-2000
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:45 am
Argh! These Mac owners with their superiority complexes! I bet you do graphics too! (Just kidding of course Julie – sometimes I get Mac envy )
|
Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 7:47 am

|
Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 8:01 am
I'm sitting here right now, playing with the context menus on my computer ONE-HANDED!! Beat THAT Mac owners!! Finqwik - I'm with you; I'm Canadian. I haven't received any of these as most of my friends are computer geeks and they aren't naive enough to open things like that. And being Canadian, I too, wouldn't care what was coming from the FBI. But I have received a couple of advisories from work and from anti-virus programs warning me about this virus.
|
Mameblanche
Member
04-13-2005
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 8:58 am
I've been getting those emails repeatedly this week, and instinctively knew they were bogus worms! I've been hitting delete alot this week!
|
Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 9:11 am
My husband's email server was shut down yesterday due to an overwhelming problem from the Sober virus. (So many people got taken in by it) We never open attachments for this very reason. I know a lot of people who do, though..acck
|
Gina8642
Member
06-01-2001
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 9:59 am
I gotta know the person and be told by them over the phone that they are sending me something as an attachment before I open it.
|
Kep421
Member
08-11-2001
| Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 12:31 pm
FWIW...businesses don't use enough mac's to make it worth while for the idiots to write worms and viruses. MAC viruses/worms would be more difficult to write and the payoff to the writer, isn't worth all the extra work. No one is going to bring a company's server to its knees writing a MAC virus. MAC's are not immune to viruses, its just not worth the time to write them... right now. As MAC's grow in popularity...the worms and viruses will come... There are a few out there already: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/macintosh-faq/
|
Jbean
Member
01-05-2002
| Monday, November 28, 2005 - 6:48 pm
i have been getting several of these types of attachments on a daily basis, not just the fbi ones, but now other ones as well. it's starting to piss me off. i don't open them, but i just keep getting one after another. can anything be done about it, besides deleting them?
|
Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Monday, November 28, 2005 - 7:19 pm
Jbean, as soon as I get any of these (or any spam, for that matter) I immediately put the sender on my 'blocked sender list'... I'm not stopping them from coming, per se, but they do go directly into my deleted box without me having to manaully do it msyelf or -- , especially if you use the preview pane for email -- accidentally click to open one of those attachments.
|
Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Monday, November 28, 2005 - 7:44 pm
my boss had over 1200 of 'em over the thanksgiving weekend.
|
Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, November 28, 2005 - 7:51 pm
if you use the preview pane, you need to turn it off ... check your isp, my isp has been deleting the attachments to those emails before they even hit my inbox. and make sure you have the latest dat files for your virus scan.
|
Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Monday, November 28, 2005 - 7:51 pm
Remember the "I love you" virus of a number of years ago. I was working at a mid-size law firm at the time. Quite a few people in the law firm got the e-mail. IIRC, no secretary opened the e-mail / attachment. But some lawyers who got e-mails from other lawyers in the firm with subject "I love you" opened it. Duh!! And so it spread....
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 1:57 am
I am getting maybe 20 a day. AVG is catching them, and I don't open the attachments. But what is really weird is that they aren't addressed to me. It will be to someone one else@myisp.com
|
Kep421
Member
08-11-2001
| Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 2:51 pm
These worms steal addresses from email address books, then email themselves to people in your book; The sender is sometimes your email address or is disguised as another address in your book. That's what makes them so hard to trace where they are coming from. Texannie... the worm could have added you to the bcc list? My roomate's company has a very zealous spam filter, which prevents these type of emails getting through. The problem is the spam filter is causing a backlog of inbound emails that is taking anywhere from 3-5 hours to get a legit email through. Everyone in his company is waiting for their emails....and waiting....and waiting... Seriously, these hackers who write these things should get serious jail time....
|
Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 2:58 pm
yep, my job's filter is doing a great job filtering these things out, but the other email is slow getting through. my virus scan has been updating itself everyday the past few days, if you don't have yours set to automatically check for updates, you may want to continue to check for updates and change your settings.
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 4:02 pm
these aren't even addresses i recognize, but they are all from road runner addys....what a pain!
|
Stingerman
Member
07-03-2005
| Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 6:19 am
I"ve been lucky no viru's lately
|
Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 10:23 am
I use Juno as well as Yahoo e-mail. Both screen viruses before they deliver the e-mail, and neither advises me of how much they reject, but I have not received a single virus e-mail. Back when Juno started screening for viruses, maybe a year ago, they used to send me a notification of what they blocked, which was about 5-6 a day. I guess the other users must have got tired of the notifications, because Juno said it was going to stop notifying users because they were getting too many complaints.
|