e-mail virus question

[mchorlton]

is there an e-mail virus going around with the subject line 'Ellie's Birthday Photos'.

I have deleted this message without looking at it since i do not know the person who sent or and i don't know anyone called Ellie. It worries me though that the e-mail address that sent the mail was from someone called Ann Chorlton - Chorlton is my family name, but i do not know this person.

I have norton antivirus which scans my e-mails as they download, but it did not stop this mail.

Any info?

 

[ainwood]

If you have the lastest virus definitions from Norton, and it didn't pick it up as a virus, then it probably wasn't one.

What e-mail program are you using? If it is outlook, you should be able to set the security settings to "high", in which case outlook won't execute any scripts in the e-mail if you view it.

You can probably open the e-mail text all-right, but just be careful about viewing attachments. Look at the name of the attachment - if its something like "photo.jpg" or "photo.bmp" then it will be OK.

If its "Photo.bmp.EXE" or "Photo.jpg.com" (ie has an extension ending in say .com or .exe), then DON'T open the extension.

It may be something simple (and innocent) like someone getting the e-mail address slightly wrong - eg sent it to m.chorlton instead of mchorlton for example.

 

[mchorlton]

Thanks

i do have the latest virus defs. so i suppose it wasn't. i use Outlook Express, so i don't suppose the security features are as good, but i don't want to use Outlook.

i got cencerned becaus i'm VERY careful about who i give my e-mail address to. i rarely ever get any spam. so i suppose it was a mistyped address. But still best to be on the safe side i think!

 

[CornMaster]

Originally posted by ainwood
If you have the lastest virus definitions from Norton, and it didn't pick it up as a virus, then it probably wasn't one.

You have TOO much faith in Norton.

Norton is probably 3rd or 4th for best virus scanners. Plus...NO program will pick up EVERY virus.

I could write a virus today...and start spreading. They have to catch it, disect it, find a way to identify it, and find a way to stop it. This can take weeks.

Anyway...It'S ALWAYS a good idea to delete mail if you don't know where it came from. I've gotten two e-mail in the last two days. One with a .eml attachment and one with a .bmp.pif attachment. The .bmp.pif is a popular one. most people don't see the .pif part because they have extentions turned off. So they think it's a picture...double click it....and are now infected.

I don't use any real-time virus scanning, except common sense. If I do suspect a virus, I go to http://housecall.antivirus.com and run a complete scan. I normally have a bunch from websites...like JS.NOCLOSE and harmless ones like that. But nothing major so far.

 

[Perfection]

I open my e-mail with LINUX, most of the viruses don't work on that kind of machine