Author: Albert Silver
Date: 16:18:31 02/26/04
Go up one level in this thread
On February 26, 2004 at 18:13:43, Bob Durrett wrote:
>On February 26, 2004 at 16:18:41, John Merlino wrote:
>
>>On February 26, 2004 at 14:01:25, Stephen Ham wrote:
>>
>>>Dear John,
>>>
>>>I just received the following email, with attachment, from John Merlino. Since
>>>you're the only John Merlino whom I know, I thought I'd better post this to you.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Thanks for your registration.
>>>( We say Sorry again, the first mail was delivered to an unknown mail address.
>>>This was a bug in our mailing system! )
>>>
>>>The amount of 239.- USD was deducted by your credit card.
>>>
>>>Welcome,
>>>you can now visit more than 1200 very very hot web pages!
>>>Your registration, pages and passwords are in the attachment.
>>>
>>>enjoy
>>>
>>>
>>>His email address is: John.Merlino@smtp02.fields.gol.com and he sent this to my
>>>work address, which is odd. That John Merlino didn't leave a name after writing
>>>"enjoy."
>>>
>>>I don't recall trying to register anywhere and I certainly don't recall
>>>authorizing any debit to my credit card for $239. The mention of "hot web pages"
>>>sounds like porno. You're not in that business now, are you, John? ;-) Since
>>>there's an attachment, this looks like a virus/worm.
>>>
>>>I'm guessing that it's a mere coincidence that the sender's name is the same as
>>>yours. I plan to delete the email after you confirm that you didn't send it.
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance, John.
>>>
>>>All the very best,
>>>Stephen Ham
>>
>>Well, I certainly didn't send it. :-) And I checked to make sure that your
>>e-mail that is listed in your profile is NOT in my address book, so I doubt I
>>have a virus.
>
>
>
>
>>I don't have any virus-checking software, but
>
>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Unbelievable!!!
>
I have to echo this. That is sheer lunacy (please don't be offended, it is in
proportion to my concern), and I can only conclude you have little idea how
vulnerable you really are. Viruses aren't merely the subject of foolish users
opening attachments or whatnot. You can get viruses simply navigating the
Internet unawares, and opening a page with malicious code. I don't mean
accepting to download or install something, I mean just visiting a page. I
cannot emphasize enough the advice of installing one ASAP. To re-iterate advice
given to Stephen:
If you don't already have a good anti-virus program, I recommend Norton
among the commercial programs (http://www.symantec.com), or AVG among the free
offerings (http://www.grisoft.com).
I went to my Norton Activity log to show you a couple I have run into along
these lines. I am providing the link to the Symantec page explaining more about
them (the activity log does this automatically) so that you can see.
1)Source: C:\Documents and Settings\Albert Silver\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files\Content.IE5\Y15UBYD4\popup2003-2[1].htm
Click for more information about this virus : JS.Exception.Exploit
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/js.exception.exploit.html
2) Source: C:\Documents and Settings\Albert
Silver\.jpi_cache\jar\1.0\showbanner.jar-228e1fd-3c9c481b.zip
Click for more information about this virus : Trojan.ByteVerify
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.byteverify.html
Albert
>>if I get any reports
>>from others that they are getting the same type of e-mail from me, I'll be sure
>>to check out my computer thoroughly.
>>
>>Was the e-mail sent from my AOL address? If so, then I've got a problem that I'm
>>going to have to track down. If not, then somebody else got my name from
>>somewhere and attached my name to this bogus e-mail.
>>
>>jm
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