Email Virus

[Pridebreaker]

TO ALL MEMBERS,

I HAVE RECIEVED SOME EMAILS SAYING THAT THEY HAVE RECEIVED A VIRUS FROM MY EMAIL. I HAVE NOT SENT ANYONE ON THIS BOARD AN EMAIL. SOME ONE HAS TAKEN MY EMAIL ADDRESS AND USING IT AS A VIRUS. SO IF ANYONE HAS RECEIVED A EMAIL FROM ME DO NOT OPEN IT! I AM CURRENTLY CHANGING MY EMAIL. ALSO I THINK IT PRETTY SORRY THAT SOMEONE WOULD DO THIS. TO WHOEVER IS DOING THIS YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE BECAUSE I DON'T THINK IT IS VERY FUNNY. MY OLD EMAIL IS emludwig@bayou.com.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME

MITCH LUDWIG:mad: :mad: :mad:

[NPW]

Thats the way these things work..your computer received the virus from ???? after a set # of days it goes active and mails itself to everyone in your address book..

RUN A GOOD VIRUS PROGRAM AND DISINFECT YOUR BOX!!

It happens all the time,remember that e-mail you got that wasn'y from anyone you knew?
you were Zapped!!

Good luck on getting rid of it as it will destroy your system..

[FCnLa]

Mitch, get you some virus software. They ought to have it at Office Depot or maybe your local Wally world. Some stuff is availible on line.

You hear from Naul lately? Saw his red boat at Box's Boat Seats when I picked up my Checkmate. It's looking good. Doesn't the guy that bought Alan's Vandal live up there? Have y'all raced? Hope to have mine lined out this week. We need to get together and see who is king of D'arbone.:eek:

Shoot me an "e" when you get you computer fixed.

Paul

[tabararacing]

I keep getting the Klez worm (virus like) from someone called Mirageskiracer. Can someone talk to him and tell him he has it on his computer? If you guys need free virus software, this Grisoft.com, has a great trial version out. Internet providers are recomending it, alot of virus' now days aparently are designed to go around your Mcaffee's and Nortons...
Brian

[Racemore]

I downloaded that after you posted it a while back and it works great.It hasn't found any but it's on the job scanning everything.Thanks:cool:

[tabararacing]

My brother and dad both run it, and its picked it up everytime for them... It scans every night on my computer at 12:00. I have been doing some research on this company, its a matter of time before they get bought out, and the software will cost big bucks.
Brian

[Raceman]

I had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago and immediately e mailed the member here who the e mail was sent from. After talking with Greg also, I found that there's another possibility. The scumbags that like to spread viruses will harvest screen names and can then manipulate the "from" line in the top of the e mail to use em. As an example, they can get any two screen names off this site and sent an E mail with an attachment from one to the other, or from one to a whole bunch of others. I don't understand the mechanics of making the "from" read something different than the real source, but apparently these people can pull it off. In that case it actually has nothing to do with the computer of the person listed as sending it. That was the case in mine because the return paths down in the text didn't show the name of the person listed as "from" at the top.

[pyro]

A "worm" e-mail virus, such as Klez.gen@mm, can do several things:

Worst of all, it hacks into MS outlook or outlook express and e-mails a copy of itself to everyone on your address book list. Newer worms such as Klez have a way of fooling outlook into opening the attachment automatically. It doesn't matter if you don't click the attachment. As soon as you click on the e-mail line for a preview, it opens the virus attachment, and you're infected. If you don't have a virus protection software, you're SCREWED. You can't even right-click on the suspicious message to delete it, when you do, it's got you!!! The only evidence that the virus is running is the data activity shown to be taking place on your internet connection (connection icon is blinking), even though the user is not web-surfing. The data is the infected e-mails being sent. Soem viruses will also destroy files on your computer and crash it, but many will just work silently on the unsuspecting victim's machine.

On an infected computer, it explores the hard drive, and borrows phrases from filenames and word documents. It uses these as the seemingly random "subject" lines in the e-mails it sends.

It often "forges" the "from" address to an address that it found in the text of one of your private e-mails, sometimes the virus keeps a list of forging addresses that the infected user will not recognize. It may also borrow phrases from word documents and use them as the subject line. Quite often, the subject is blank. Assuming you have virus protection, if you want to warn someone of the infection, right click the message, (the anti-virus will appear, tell it to do anything OTHER THAN "open"), click properties. At the next screen, click the "details" tab, and start looking through the code. You may also click the "message source" button. This will list the guts of the e-mail file. The garbage at the end of the file is the encoded attachment data of the virus itself. Somewhere toward the top, you will find an address listed as "return path", "envelope sender", etc. If it is different than the "from" address, you may notice that the e-mail server often inserts a phrase stating "may be forged" to notify the recipient that the from address could be fake. Spam e-mail senders often forge addresses like this to avoid being "blocked." Anyway, sometimes you can find the address of the infected user this way.

Some worms may also attach word documents from your computer and send them to everyone, thus spreading confidential information to all of your friends. The .doc attachment often carries the virus as well.

Microsoft has a patch available for download that will correct the vulnerability of outlook and outlook express that makes it auto-execute special kinds of attachments. Go to their website www.microsoft.com and get the update. This will prevent the virus from opening itself, even if you are too dumb to have anti-virus software. Most of all, update your anti-virus files as often as possible.

It's a jungle out there...

[BK]

Great post, Pyro!

I think a lot of people don't understand that some virus/worms get into unsuspecting computers, and then emails out without the owner even knowing what is happening.

And the other point to understand is that the sender that appears in the "FROM" line, may not be who it really came from.

I've seen hate mails sent to people who weren't even involved directly, simply because their email address was forged in the "From" line; copied from the infected users address book.

Do like Pyro says: Find the "Details", "Return path", "Envelope sender" or "Properties" part of the email with the virus -- this will give you accurate info on who really sent it ---

But remember, these people who have the worm, are most likely NOT sending them intentionally - the whole point of a worm is to do things automatically, and to try and trick everyone involved into opening it by using familiar subject lines and addresses the receiver may think looks safe -- and sender doesn't even know it is happening.

[Rickracer]

and that's a good point BK. Addresses are usually forged, and the real sender doesn't even know his puter is the source. Good AV software is definitely a must, and keeping the latest definitions is just as important. :eek:

[Charlie M]

Raceman recieved an email with a virus attached from one of my addresses, however it was not sent from my computer or my email address, as I checked my outgoing mail and further more I don't have a address book with any email address on it. From the address the virus was sent I have only emailed 1 person on this sight. I typicall use another address that I am not concerned with how much junk mail I recieve as I delete most all mail coming from it without even looking.

I guess some nerds out there, without any lives, don't have anything better to do that HIDE behind there computers and reek havack on others computers.

From what I have seen of these virus attached emails, if the subject does not make any sence DELETE it.

[Rickracer]

...once you view the subject line, using Outlook or Outlook Express, if there is an attached virus, you probably already have it. And if you send email from either of the two programs I mentioned, you do have email addresses in your address book, whether you ever set it up or not. It is automatic. And it doesn't matter which email addy you use, if you use the same program to do email for multiple addresses, it shares the address book between them. Also, no AV program is any better than their latest virus definitions. Bottom line, if you want to avoid virus's, do an update on your email program, get a good AV program, and D/L the latest definitions as soon as they are available. Last I heard Norton's come out every Wednesday, but if a new malicious one shows up, they post if to the update site as soon as it's developed.

[tabararacing]

I just got 3 more of those virus', Grisoft.com free antivirus software, picked all of them up. I'm telling you guys it works. I also run Norton and Mcaffee, they don't pick anything up...
Brian

[Rickracer]

And it catches them all. (except the first one, my virus sdefinitions were 1 day too old) Not taking anything away from the product you are talking about, but if Norton's isn't catching them, either you don't have it set to scan your email, or you don't have the latest definitions.

[tabararacing]

I've researched and I've actually found out from my local provider that Norton won't pickup klez worms... Yes Norton will pickup an average virus, but the worms are what has been going around lately...
Brian

[Rickracer]

My Norton's nail's every Klez that comes in. :cool:

[BarryStrawn]

Your local provider is misinformed if you mean to say that Norton (or McAfee) will not detect klez. There are always limitations to their ability to clean up a previously infected system but they both work just fine.

[tabararacing]

Its nice to hear other opinions on the matter. I usually just assume that they have done their homework, but whatever works I'll use...
Thanks,
Brian

[Charlie M]

I think my best bet is if my computer #@%*'! up, is to throw it in the parking lot run over it with my truck and buy a new one, thats what I have been doing in the past with some of the other virus's that has infected my computers.
I just buy a new computer about every 6 or 8 months.

Charlie

[Rickracer]

Save yourself some grief, (and a bunch of money)go to Office Max, Staples, Comp USA, or even Wally World, pick up Norton SystemWorks, install it on your puter, make sure it is set to scan email and get virus definitions once a week, and forget about it. Systemworks has SpeedDisk, (a better defrag program), Windoctor,a registry optimizer and other utilities that help keep your puter runnin it's best if you want to use them. And you don't have to be a puter whiz to use it. Or, just get NAV 2001, install it,set it up, and forget it. You can set it up to do everything automatically. Not a guarantee you won't ever get a virus, or other puter related problems, but a lot better than nothing.

[pyro]

At my workplace, we use McAffee, and at home I use PC-Cillin. They both block the Klez.gen@mm, as well as many others. I update both of them weekly.