h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I received this email:

Hello user of Co.uk e-mail server,

Our antivirus software has detected a large ammount of viruses outgoing
from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up
your computer software.

Please, read the attach for further details.

Kind regards,
The Co.uk team http://www.co.uk


Followed by this:

Dear user of Co.uk,

Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content)
outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by
a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe,
follow the instructions.

For further details see the attach.

Best wishes,
The Co.uk team http://www.co.uk



Looks more than a little suspicious. Has anyone else received something like this? My virus checker hasn't picked anything up from it.

Hi I got some emails similar to that, they went into my Bulk inbox which is where spam mail goes into.
It said that they had detected virus and gave me an attachment to open, but i just deleted the mail.
I`m on yahoo.

carol

Yes I deleted it too and didn't visit the link (suspect address).

I've not received that one yet but I hold by the rule if you don't know were it came from - delete it.

You could phone your ISP and ask them if they know anything about this setup.

Never, ever open an attachment on an e-mail, unless you know the sender, and are sure from the content of the message that they intended to send you the attachment.

There's a whole shedload of viruses popping up at the moment. They're being created and circulated faster than our virus software can catch up. I agree with Gnomon, if you don't know who it's from, delete it and NEVER open the attachment(s)

This topic is a recurring one in 'Ask h2g2'. I wonder if there is a guide entry on it, or whether someone rather more knowledgeable than me could write one. I do not know, for example, whether or not being on-line for long periods, as may be likely with h2g2, makes one more vunerable to attack by a hacker, or whether it is only e-mail that can do this.

A354638
How to Avoid Computer Viruses

Your particular email looks like the Beagle virus = http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/beagle.asp

Just in case anyone hasn't visited the link (http://www.co.uk).

That is a page belonging to a well known shop beginning with a big 'W' and ending in 'S' containing several O's and another W.

Hmmm, A354638 contains a few inaccuracies, or at least information that no longer applies.

Since March 2001, Outlook Express will no longer execute attachments automatically.

I actually wrote a journal entry about viruses (F1284259?thread=391517) earlier, focusing on ISP-side filtering and education. Probably the two approaches most likely to succeed in the long run...

A354638 also states that all .vbs files ARE viruses which is false, it could be a perfectly useful little script.

This morning we received a total of 9 suspect/unsolicited e-mails which my husband duly deleted.

Being computer illiterate...I now will not open e-mails.

The advice for emails is fairly straightforward: don't ever follow instructions in an email which you weren't specifically expecting.

This includes any kind of advice about viruses; if it's real advice it will have a link to a reputable website, and you can follow the advice there. Personally I always include a line saying "don't follow virus advice you read in emails; check that the link above is to a reputable site, and follow the advice there".

Legitimate emails will never, ever tell you to do anything with your passwords, credit card details or with any attachments.

stjarna -- what makes you so sure Outlook Express won't execute attachments? IE 5 will execute image files, due to a bug... if your software isn't up to date, or if a new exploit is discovered, you won't need to click on anything to become infected...

One way to be quite a bit safer is to use non-MS software, on the basic principle that it's MS software that most viruses take advantage of. A good start is moving away from IE... http://www.mozilla.org or http://www.opera.com are good places to start. http://www.linux.org if you want to stop worrying about viruses altogether

OE 6 will not let you execute files until you hunt down and override the setting that says 'Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus. (i.e. .vbs or .exe or .com or .bat....I could go on for a while)