Hatrack River Forum: Email virus? (Help, computer people!)

This is topic Email virus? (Help, computer people!) in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

I'm having some freaky email problems. In addition to the usual account problems (not receiving emails and not being able to send them), I'm suddenly getting some far stranger problems.

PayPal emailed me twice and said that PayPal logos had been inserted in my eBay auctions (I haven't sold something on eBay since January or February). I got an email from Priceline saying that my email had reached an automated mailbox, and that I should contact them through a different address (I sent no email to Priceline).

And suddenly, I've gotten fifteen emails from different addresses (one of which I actually sent an email to a couple weeks ago) with various subject lines but identical messages. The subjects are "Thank you!," "My details," "Your application," and "That movie." The entire message says, "See the attached file for details," but there's not even an attached file. The address that I recognize is the one for the linguistics department here. Another is from a fellow BYU student who I don't know. What the heck is going on?

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

The E-mails are from a SoBig virus that's making the rounds. If your virus software was updated this morning, you don't need to worry too much about those.

The PayPal issue is unrelated, but I agree you should check it out; someone may have hijacked your eBay account. (Check on eBay, log into your account, and see if there's any record of recent auctions.)

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

I'm at work right now, so I don't know if the virus software has been recently updated. I'll just put my faith in the network ops people downstairs. [Smile]

As for PayPal and Priceline, I can't figure out what's going on. There's no activity on my eBay or PayPal accounts, and I don't think I even have an account with Priceline (I thought I did, but it didn't recognize my email address). I think my ghetto Netscape Webmail account is just having some issues. Maybe it's about time I got rid of it.

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

The virus

Tom is right on the Paypal thing, definitely check it out with them.

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Oh yeah, like I'm going to click on that link, funny boy. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

Drat! My eeeevil plan failed.

(just info on the virus by the way. It's symantec's site)

[Wink]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Suuure. Symantec?s website. Riiiiight. That?s convenient. Next you?ll be telling me to click over to "McAfee" or something. You IT people are all alike.

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

And once again, we see that advice for robots is hilarious.

Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :

You know, Juanito, I am still giving away sakeriver.com addresses for a while, complete with cool web interface. And you don't even need to register for the forum in order to get one.

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

I was already at the Symantec site for work reasons. I'd normally give someone Computer Associates or Trend Micro info. [Wink]

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Riiiiight. Advice for robots is "hilarious."

Ruth was probably sitting there snickering at your expression while you typed that. I know about you Provonians.

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

Well, Saxy, that sounds better than my friend's offer (an address at nexuscomputerconsulting.com), but I think I'll decline. One of these days I'll get my own domain name, so I'll just wait until then instead of switching addresses multiple times. But I registered for the forum anyway.

afr, you're too smart for me. The evils of Provo have indeed seeped into my very soul, and there's no point in hiding it.

Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :

::shrug::

Suit yourself, dude. You're not alone in your sentiments, though. Juliette has forsaken her sakeriver.com account in favor of her Hotmail account due to the fact that she just opened it a month or so ago. But hurry up on that domain name thing. I need another forum to ignore. [Razz]

Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :

I got the paypal email too. It is likely that their site got the virus. Maybe not though. I'll have to check it out.

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

Afr -- I don't think those two are Provonians until they're married. Right now they're still Provolones.

Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :

Mmm... provolone... ::drools::

Jon Boy, come here and get in my sandwich.

Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :

I'd make a comment about eating myself, but I'm pretty sure it'd end up in the Out of Context thread.

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Moose, that was cheesy.

Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :

I actually found it quite dry.

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

Another serious post...

The SoBig.F virus (thought to be fairly harmless) actually has some sort of secret payload. There is an encrypted set of instructions in the virus to download a 'mystery program' to computers it has infected and execute it afterwards. There's no info as to what it would do, as of yet, but experts say it won't be stopped before it can trigger. Best advice would be to virus scan your system again (with most recent updates, use http://housecall.antivirus.com if you have to AV software) for good measure.

source

[ August 22, 2003, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: TheTick ]

Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :

Is it just me, or did the incidence of this program just explode? I had like 15 emails with this virus today, where as before I was only getting about 5.

Also folks, just so you know, even if you aren't infected, your email address could be randomly picked from an infected computer as the return address. So don't panic, but still run the antivirus check if you should get someone complaining to you that you sent them an infected email.

Go here for the removal tool if you should find you have it.

Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :

I thought I was getting spammed a lot, when I got 7 or 8 junk e-mails a day. But now, recently a friend of our family said that he got 1500 e-mails in the space of two days.

[Eek!]

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

Yeah, that's nothing. The webmaster inbox at Edgewood College received 22,000 virus E-mails from addresses at the University of Wisconsin within the space of three hours before I blocked 'em.

Posted by Maccabeus (Member # 3051) on :

Maybe this is why my e-mail load has suddenly dropped from 30 or so every half a day to 3 or 4...everybody is too busy deleting junk to send e-mail?

Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :

Ahhh

Maybe Sobig is a virus meant to shut down spammers. That would be cool.

Posted by Zotto! (Member # 4689) on :

Actually, almost every computer at the lodge I'm staying at here in Alaska has been shut down due to complications arising from that virus. *ergh* Means I have to get my dad to take me into this office afterhours and use this reaaaaaallly slooooooow computer.

At least it's something. [Big Grin]