OFF-TOPIC: VIRUS ALERT!!!

Beyond Dominia: The Rumor Mill: OFF-TOPIC: VIRUS ALERT!!!

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By Puschkin, Defiant Vanguard Against The Phyrexian Invasion (Puschkin) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:02 pm:

I just received a virus. I reacted a second too late and it already sent emails to all my saved contacts! Oscar Tan, Darren DiBattista and Ray Mitchel are three who I remember.
Don´t open, preview OR DELETE any mail with the subject "RE:"! There´s nothing behind the RE.
Here´s a link that helps you deleting the virus, I got it from my provider:
http://www.antivirus.com/vinfo/virusencyclo/default5.asp?VName=WORM_BADTRANS.B


By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:15 pm:

God dammit, I never got shit like this before 40,000 random people put me in their address book.


By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:26 pm:

I use Yahoo and not an Outlook program-- am I safe? Norton's not detecting anything.

ATTENTION: If you're not one of the people I am in constant email contact with, TAKE ME OUT OF YOUR ADDRESS BOOK BECAUSE I HAVE NEITHER TIME NOR PATIENCE FOR THIS SHIT.


By Zherbus (Zherbus) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:29 pm:

You should be ok Az.


By Puschkin, Defiant Vanguard Against The Phyrexian Invasion (Puschkin) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:37 pm:

Well, I received the original virus from a yahoo-address ...


By JP 'Polluted' Meyer, the Archivist (Jpmeyer) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 02:46 pm:

I got one of those emails from you too, but I 1) already recognized it so I was able to delete it before it infected my computer and 2) Your ISP detected it and sent me an email as well telling me not to open your letter.


By VB@DG on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 03:01 pm:

Our business computer recently contracted this same virus, through an online order. We've strengthened our security program, but these guys just keep making better viruses; I'd love to be able to have a little chat with the gentleman who infected us, though I don't think he'd enjoy it very much.....


By Luc, Use The Force (Luc) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 03:11 pm:

I got it too...

Luc


By Mogg Sentry on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 03:19 pm:

Anyone ever wonder why these viruses are created or who does create them?
I have a few ideas:
1. Some moron in his basement who somehow finds this to be amusing.
2. Those greedy business's i.e. Norton, IBM, Microsoft. The more viruses exist the beter chance the consumer will buy anti-virus equipment or just replace an older computer used just to shop online, etc.

I'm more into believing someone is getting paid by an anonymous buyer for these viruses, and then the bugs are sent out on a wave of annoyance. Not a bad idea though if you own a company that would like make more money. Or I could just be retarded and have wasted 3 minutes typing?


By Silver Dragon (Silverd) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 03:21 pm:

I Opened the e-mail, but it said it "passed the virus on" is that bad????

Silverdragon0


By Reper (Reper) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 03:55 pm:

yea


By Puschkin, Defiant Vanguard Against The Phyrexian Invasion (Puschkin) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 05:03 pm:

SilverDragon and JP, you are not in my address book! That means that either Rakso, Azhrei or Ray Mitchel must have spawned this silly thing!


By War Wolf (Warwolf) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 05:08 pm:

Ok, somehow I ended up with this thing (Rakso must have put me in his address book when I got an account). Puschkin, you say NOT to delete it. I thought that virus attackments had to be opened to infect your computer, and could just be deleted unopened. Is this wrong? I am awaiting an answer, since it's sitting in my inbox right now.


By War Wolf (Warwolf) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 05:12 pm:

Ok, I have this thing in my inbox. I thought that virus attachments had to be OPENED to work, and you could just delete them unopened, but Puschkin says NOT to delete the thing. Is this wrong? It's in my inbox right now, and I am awaiting an answer.


By War Wolf (Warwolf) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 05:13 pm:

grr...i thought the first post didn't take...sorry.


By Silver Dragon (Silverd) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 05:18 pm:

Okay, the explanation on that website said that it didn't have to be opened to be executed.

When I opened my e-mail it was said to be from Puschkin. A few minutes ago, I contacted someone in my address book, they had not received the virus e-mail. It has been hours since I opened it. So I have conlficting sources, one saying you have to open the attachment, one saying that you don't.

BTW, I now remember that I received another similar e-mail recently. I don't remember who sent it but it said something like "sorry about yesterday, listen to this". Then it had what seems to be the same file attached which ended in MP3.pif . I wound up deleting it.

I hope this info helps,
Silverdragon0


By Matt the Great (Matt) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 07:07 pm:

I just delete all incoming mail anyway :\


By Nick Franceschine, the Loremaster (Nick) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 08:03 pm:

I delete all mail that's not sent to me. Seems to prevent all such problems. :)

We got hit with this virus at the office. The standard anti-virus software (Norton, McAfee, etc.) all have upgrades to deal with it.

If you get an email (or multiple emails) with the subject "Hi", just delete them WITHOUT OPENING.


By VB@DG on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 08:10 pm:

....as well as any with only "Re:", or "Re:", followed by some crap you don't recognize...


By Shadow (Shadow) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 08:11 pm:

It's so odd. I've gotten about a hundred of these things on my hotmail account. Same deal with another virus a whilez back. Never opened any of them, possibly bcs they were from a bunch of people I'd never fugging heard of. Sometimes I wonder how I end up in these address books. *sigh*

Things to do to protect self from e-mail viri:

1) Buy/Steal Norton "Savage-mising" Antivirus, which is really good.

2) Don't use e-mail clients that will run scripts of any type, or if you do, set them on prompt. Outlook has a nice big security thing where you can set all the activeX and VB stuff on prompt.

3) Don't open attachments unless you were expecting them. Better yet, get PGP, learn how to use it, and don't open non-signed files, etc.


By Rakso, Patriarch & Rules Ayatollah (Rakso) on Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - 08:52 pm:

No, I don't have it.

I've never opened this thing.


By War Wolf (Warwolf) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 03:28 am:

Rakso, I think you are the only person on here who would have my name in your address book. I don't know anyone else on here, nor have I emailed any of them. I don't know how else I could have gotten it.


By Molot, Dark-Elf Timelord on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 05:09 am:

this is the third virus bound e-mail I have recieved since I started coming here, the only ones I have ever gotten, to be sure. anyway I opened it before I came here, on my yahoo, and the virus had been truncated, lucky me, then I received a virus warning two minutes later. heh. I was wondering who Pushkin was, then remembered the name from here, so I opened it, even though I thought it was going to be mail telling me to take Arcain Denial out of Blue 'Brary Crush or stop posting on BD.


By Minute Man on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 12:52 pm:

@War Wolf: Some of these viruses not only email themselves to everyone in the recipient's address book, but they also look through the Web browser's cache for email addresses. Since you include your email address when you post here, anybody who gets the virus after reading one of your posts could send it to you.


By Puschkin, Defiant Vanguard Against The Phyrexian Invasion (Puschkin) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 02:26 pm:

I said that you shouldn´t delete it cause:
Stupid me didn´t know that this even more stupid preview feature from outlook express (which can´t be turned off!) even previews if I right-click to delete the message. Previewing opens it.
I don´t know about other email-programs so I suggested that you shouldn´t delete it either until you have more information. I was somehow panicked and really didn´t want to harm anyone of you. I never thought that it could be harmful if I put someone into my address book! I must be naiv.


By Silver Dragon (Silverd) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 03:04 pm:

Well, nobody I know has gotten this from me, and I don't seem to be having any problems with my computer. So should I not worry?

I hope so,
Silverdragon0


By Puschkin, Defiant Vanguard Against The Phyrexian Invasion (Puschkin) on Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 04:02 pm:

follow the link I posted in my first message. You´ll find an instruction to remove the virus and another link to a tool that scans your PC for viruses (it´s free).

In general you won´t sense any damage to you PC until it´s too late!


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