Virus Alert

[Poolidiot]

Edit by SeanB - the following is a hoax, please do not forward.

Well I sure do not want to be known as the board SPAMMER , so I have deleted my message

 

[Butterfly]

Thanks for the warning.


Joyce

 

[Guest]

actually, I checked on Snopes and this is a hoax that has been around for several years. while there is a real 'postcard' virus it actually directs you to a hostle website that installs a trojan. The one described above is a hoax that has been circulating on the net for a while now!

 

[Butterfly]

I checked on Snopes.com and did a search for "postcard virus" and it's status is "real virus". So, why is there a discrepancy? Did I do an incorrect search? It was my first time at Snopes. Better safe than sorry.

Any help appreciated.


Joyce

 

[SeanB]

Hoax:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/b ... _virus.htm

Here is an exact quote that I send to people who forward these kinds of e-mails to me:

FYI - this e-mail is SPAM! ANY e-mail that encourages you to forward it on to as many people as possible (or a set number of people) is spam - regardless of the content of the message. If a message is worth reading and repeating, you won't need a plea in the message begging you to do so.

Spam does not need to be overtly malicious to do it's job, which is to be forwarded and in turn, slow down the internet. Just look at this distribution list and see how many times this note has already been forwarded. When you wonder why the internet is running slow you need look no further than messages just like this one. Instead of running a virus to cause the e-mail to be forwarded, clever spammers just create an inspirational story, cute picture, or even prayers and get the unsuspecting recipients to do the work a virus would do for them, which is to go into your distribution list and forward the e-mail. Essentially, you are being tricked into acting as the virus!

The person who originally created this message, in all likelihood, probably just wants to see how far the message will spread. They want to see how many innocent, well intentioned people, will be duped and forward this e-mail.

So please, when you get an e-mail that asks you to send it on to other people, please don't - and especially, don't send it to me.

Thanks,
Sean

My wife thinks I'm being rude, but I send this message as "reply to all" when someone uses my e-mail to spread this garbage. That way, every single person on the distribution list understands why they should not forward the message. Amazingly, I don't get too many of these any more. :lol:

I just got so fed up with people sending me this Crud without ever checking the validity. I think we've all seen enough of these, "send it to everyone you know," type of e-mails to know they are almost always a scam. Expect to see a lot more that claim to have already been "checked by snopes." Don't believe it unless you check for yourself! I usually just do a Google seach with the topic of the e-mail plus the word hoax. I found the article above by searching for "post card virus hoax."

 

[Poolidiot]

My wife thinks I'm being rude, Don't believe it unless you check for yourself!

Well when I checked it MYSELF on snopes, it shows to be REAL VIRUS Pardon me for trying to let others know. I figure if it is real or not (seeing how NO one can know for sure unless they GET the virus) it is better to be safe then sorry and if you as the owner of this site, says I am posting SPAM then I will keep this sort of thing to myself in the future. BTW I kind of agree with your wife
And I know you are the owner can and do just about anything you want to here, BUT how can you edit my orignal post to say it is a hoax if you are not 100% certain yourself. (which you can not be)
Well heck, looks like I need to work on my ability to use the quote portion of this board

 

[SeanB]

Well when I checked it MYSELF on snopes, it shows to be REAL VIRUS Pardon me for trying to let others know. I figure if it is real or not (seeing how NO one can know for sure unless they GET the virus) it is better to be safe then sorry and if you as the owner of this site, says I am posting SPAM then I will keep this sort of thing to myself in the future. BTW I kind of agree with your wife

Hmmm... a quick search found the following post on another website:
http://www.bigbigforums.com/off-topic-c ... d-one.html

Sounds familiar. Unless you are Fred, it looks like you are just copying and pasting the message sent to you, which makes me wonder if you in fact contacted Norton, and checked Snopes. The confusion here, is that there is a post card virus, but the e-mail you are forwarding is a hoax. I'm sorry that you are offended by me making sure the members of this site know that you are encouraging them to spread a hoax. It's nothing personal.

Even if it were real, do you want to get an e-mail alerting you of every possible virus? You'd spend your whole day checking and forwarding mail. The best protection is to use a good firewall, virus scan, and spyware scanner - things I think we are all aware of by now.

You shouldn't be so touchy. As I said in my quote, the people who are being duped, are well-intentioned.

 

[Poolidiot]

Sean Sean Sean, I never said I WROTE this did I? I stated I thought I would PASS this along. heck I can not even write 1 sentence much less something that long And yes I DID check snoopes. And no I did not contact Norton and NOOOOOOOOOOO I am not Fred. ( that would be like me calling you CarlD :-D ) Well I am not here to fight (argue) with the owner on such a small issue so I will say "uncle" BTW I am not touchy you can ask my wife :-D

 

[Guest]

IF you read the WHOLE ARTICLE on snopes and not just the top header you will see that while there is a postcard virus (it's actually a trojan that takes you to a malicious website), the virus described above that destroys sector 0 of your harddrive is a HOAX and this particular email hoax has been circulating for quite a while now. Snopes listed a few variants of it and one was WORD FOR WORD IDENTICAL to what was originally posted so, I repeat, that while there IS a postcard virus the message that was originally posted IS a hoax!

Sean, I also do a 'reply to all, when I receive one of these things. INHO, spreading them without checking their validily is no different than shouting "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater!
They way these things spread is while I like to call the 'Chicken Little' effect. Thank goodness there are enough internet savvy people that realize "she sky is not falling!"

 

[SeanB]

No hard feelings Pollidiot. I edited your post, AFTER I did a search and made my reply further in the thread with the link to the article explaining why I knew it was a hoax. I try to be very careful to make sure I am correct before making such changes.

I edited your post, because I felt that people might read your post and act, before scrolling down and reading the replies. Again, no hard feelings.

 

[Guest]

For those interested here is the actual text of the REAL postcard virus message as quoted from Snopes:


[i]Postcard Virus: You've Received a Postcard from a Family Member!

Status: Real virus.

Examples: [Collected via e-mail, June 2007]

Subject: You've received a postcard from a family member!

Good day.

Your family member has sent you an ecard from notme.hk.

Send free ecards from notme.hk with your choice of colors, words and music.

Your ecard will be available with us for the next 30 days. If you wish to keep
the ecard longer, you may save it on your computer or take a print.

To view your ecard, choose from any of the following options:

--------
OPTION 1
--------

Click on the following Internet address or
copy & paste it into your browser's address box.

http://notme.hk/?6e47840d8e117868911e6c3

--------
OPTION 2
--------

Copy & paste the ecard number in the "View Your Card" box at
http://notme.hk/

Your ecard number is
6e47840d8e117868911e6c3

Best wishes,
Postmaster,
notme.hk

*If you would like to send someone an ecard, you can do so at
http://notme.hk/

Variations: Other subject lines used with this message include the following:

* You've recieved a Hallmark E-Card!
* You've received a greeting card from a school-mate!
* You've received a greeting ecard from a class mate!
* You've received a greeting ecard from a neighbour!
* You've received a greeting postcard from a partner!
* You've received a greeting postcard from a worshipper!
* You've received a postcard from a family member!
* You've received a postcard from a neighbour!
* You've received a postcard from a worshipper!
* You've received an ecard from a colleague!
* Class-mate sent you an ecard from vintagepostcards.com!
* Colleague sent you a greeting ecard from postcardsfrom.com!
* School mate sent you a greeting ecard from greetingcard.org!
* Family member sent you a postcard from dgreetings.com!
* Neighbour sent you a greeting ecard from NetFunCards.com!
* School-mate sent you an ecard from mypostcards.com!
* Worshipper sent you an ecard from greetingcard.org!
* Colleague sent you a postcard from egreetings.com!
* Neighbour sent you a greeting ecard from all-yours.net!
* School friend sent you an ecard from postcards.org!
* Holiday e-card
* Movie-quality e-card
* Love postcard
* Birthday e-card
* Thank you card
* Musical postcard
* Funny postcard

Origins: Many web sites offer a service that allows a user to send a customized "greeting card" (or "postcard") to a relative, friend, or acquaintance, delivered
as an e-mail message containing a hyperlink which the recipient follows to visit the originating site and view the card. Sending out phony e-card notifications is therefore an effective method of camouflaging viruses and inducing unwitting recipients into clicking on links that install malicious programs onto their computers.

A wave of malicious messages (like the one reproduced above) sent out in June 2007 employed that very technique, arriving in inboxes bearing subject lines such as "You've received a postcard from a family member!" The messages contain URLs that recipients are supposed to visit to retrieve their e-cards, but those URLs actually point to servers hosting a variety of malware (including a variant of the Storm Trojan, "an aggressive piece of malware that has been hijacking computers to serve as attacker bots" since early 2007) that is furtively installed onto victims' PCs. (Generally, only unpatched Windows-based systems are vulnerable.)

The underlying worm is the same one that has appeared in messages with subject lines as "Sending You All My Love," the "Laughing Kitty," the "Dancing Skeleton," as well as several game and music download offers. According to spamtrackers.eu:
The storm network is large enough to cut off internet access from any institution its operators choose to attack via a "distributed denial of service attack," in which hundreds or thousands of computers request files from a server simultaneously. The entire country of Estonia was brought down that way last year. The network is actually available for rent for anyone who wishes to use it to send spam, host illegal websites, or stage denial of service attacks.[/i]

Snopes THEN goes on to say in the same article:



NOTE: Readers should take particular care not to confuse the real postcard/greeting card virus with the "Virtual Card for You" hoax that has been circulating for several years. Some of the "Postcard" warnings contribute to this confusion by including within them a link to our article about the "Virtual Card for You" hoax. They're not the same thing, despite some e-mail warnings that erroneously present them as such. Other versions of the postcard virus warning mistakenly combine it with the Invitation virus hoax:
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'Invitation' OR ONE CALLED 'POSTCARD,' Regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens an Olympic Torch OR A POSTCARD IMAGE, 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. This is the reason why you need to 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' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it. 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.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

THIS IS WORD FOR WORD IDENTICAL TO WHAT WAS ORGINALLY POSTED IN THIS THREAD AND THIS IS THE ONE THAT IS A HOAX!

Hope this clears things up!

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

 

[Guest]

whether its real or not. i have a mac, not some windows 9 garbage 8 or xplode in to pieces ( xp ) :lol:

so im immune no matter what :super:

 

[SeanB]

Devil's advocate here...If mac were the dominant platform, how long do you think it would be before hackers and spammers started hammering mac users? A lot of the reason windows seems so vulnerable, is because the vast majority of malicious attacks are focussed on pc's and not macs. They put their effort where they can do the most good/damage dempending on how you look at it. Mac users are a much smaller target and therefore get less attention from the bad guys.

Even so, I like the iMac for other reasons.

 

[AnnaK]

In addition to making a smaller target we Mac users also tend to install (mostly free open source) third-party apps and plugins which provide an added layer of security.

 

[SeanB]

In addition to making a smaller target we Mac users also tend to install (mostly free open source) third-party apps and plugins which provide an added layer of security.

I used to pay way too much for Norton, now I use AVG along with Zone Alarm for the firewall - both free, and much better than what Vista provides.

 

[Guest]

In addition to making a smaller target we Mac users also tend to install (mostly free open source) third-party apps and plugins which provide an added layer of security.

Hate to burst your bubble but open source has just as many security vulnerabilities as windoze! Macs run a flavor of 'nix these days (Darwin which is BSD complient) and it's really not any more secure. IBM used to boast that OS/2 only had one known virus but even that situation has changed even though it's a almost dead OS! (used to do admin and hardware maintenacne for an ISP and we ran 'nix, macs and windoze, depending on what we needed to do!)

 

[JasonLion]

In practice, in the world as it exists today, the Mac is far and away the safest machine to use. In some abstract theoretical world all machines are vulnerable. But in practice the hackers go after Windows machines almost every time, with only occasional attempts on Lunix machines. There has never been a significant hacker attack on OS X based Macs, despite a list of known vulnerabilities too numerous to contemplate.

 

[Guest]

However, all three platforms run the same software often with only minor modifications. If there is a security vulnjerability in a particular piece of software it is often platform independant!

 

[Poolidiot]

Well, even though I am known as the site "spammer" , atleast I started a good Window vs. Mac debate

 

[Butterfly]

Well, even though I am known as the site "spammer" , atleast I started a good Window vs. Mac debate

Thanks, PI, a lot of good info came out of this thread!


Joyce