Warning

It seems that someone is using my emailaddress to send mails without my knowledge, look at these mails I received:

"Nice.The file contains a virus...you can have it back.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mikael Eriksson" <memory@telia.com>
To: <garv401@novagate.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 8:09 PM
Subject: Fr�gor 143

Hi! How are you?

I send you this file in order to have your advice

See you later. Thanks"

And another one...

"Mikael: My virus scanning software advised me the file you sent me contained a worm virus.I do not know if this was your intention or what, but in any event, I did not open the attachment due to the virus.

If you were unaware of the virus, go ahead and send me a cleaned version of the file.I am guessing you have a question or wish an opinion ref a KO system.

Tableraider"

I sent this message back:

?????

I have not sent you anything, in fact I have not sent anyone anything today, the only thing I have done is to write another person a mail, text.

I received this answer:

"Bad news for you in that case.Someone is using your identity to send viruses.I just received another one from you.Someone has hacked you.I have now received 2 viruses from someone using your email address."

Then I got this message from someone who seems to believe I wrote him:

"I have reason to believe that there is an exposer in the group and I'm
almost certain that you know this person also. Would you like to tell
me what you know about it before I pass judgement on this person? I'd
hate for them not to get a fair chance to speak their position, you
know. Thanx for your wonderful response and L8a"

Have anyone else here "received" mail from me? I discovered a frightening thing, the person using my mail seems to be from Sweden like me, since the subject he wrote was: "Fr�gor 143" which is swedish.

"It seems that someone is using my emailaddress to send mails without my knowledge"

The "someone" is the Sircam virus, and your computer is infected. This is how the virus works. It uses your address, and subject headings from your e-mail files to send out copies of itself to everyone in your address book.

Once one is aware of it, it is easy to spot because the text always starts with "Hi. How are you?" and of course there is an attachment. The proper course of action is to delete it immediately. DO NOT attempt to open or view the attachmeht!

However, this information comes too late for you.

Fortunately, there is a cure.

Go to this link and click on the Sircam virus alert:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/

In the interest of fairness, here is a link to McAfee antivirus:

http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/viruses/sircam/default.asp?cid=2360

And here is a link to Panda Software:

http://sircam.pandasoftware.com/index_com.htm

You can get a free fix for the virus (or detection software) from any of the above. Download the fix immediately and run it on your computer!

Do not delay with this. Once it goes through your address book it then starts corrupting data on your hard drive.

I was one of the "lucky ones" who received this virus with Mikaels name on it.

For anyone who gets it, it is a "worm" type virus.

As mentioned in the other post, if you do not have email virus scanning software running, do not open attachments from people you have not been corresponding with.

I ran the free fix for the virus and it said that the virus is now removed, it was in 6 folders. I am happy no one was using my email!

Mikael

Be very careful of getting viruses through E-mail. These are becoming more common. Viruses effect somebody's E-mail and send infected messages to the people in the address book etc.

I now never open an E-mail from somebody that I do not know. If anyone has ever sent me E-mail and not gotten an answer, that is why. If you do send something to me, try to identify yourself in the subject line. (Opening the E-mails themselves is usually not dangerous. But why take chances.)

But I never open an attachment unless I know what it is. When I got the message several weeks ago "I sent you this file to ask for advice" I did nto open it, but rather replied to the sender "What is this file and why do you want me to look at it."

Several years ago I got an E-mail from a professional gambler who was asking my advice on some analysis. I forget what. There was a nice E-mail form him with the questions, plus another message with an attachment. There was no description of the attachment. Being suspicious of such things, I did not open it. I replied to the issues in his letter and then asked "Why did send me an attachment?"

He replied to the reply, and added "I did not send any attachments." But, there was a second E-mail with an attachment on it. I looked at the name on that file and it said something like "ME_NUDE.Gif". I wrote back and said "You should check for viruses; I don't think you are trying pictures of "ME_NUDE". He wrote back several days later and said he had a virus, and he wouldn't have discovered it if I hadn't alerted him.

Be careful out there!

I ran the free fix for the virus and it said that the virus is now removed, it was in 6 folders.

Good. I personally received 3 copies of it from your computer at my hotmail address. :-)

"I now never open an E-mail from somebody that I do not know. If anyone has ever sent me E-mail and not gotten an answer, that is why. If you do send something to me, try to identify yourself in the subject line. (Opening the E-mails themselves is usually not dangerous. But why take chances.)"

You are probably being a little paranoid here. The body of an e-mail message itself is just a text file, and cannot be turned into a program. You may indeed have deleted something from someone you know.

OTOH, I at least glance at all of my e-mail, and if I don't recognize the address, 99% of the time it is just spam.

Did you know that you can make $50,000 in 90 days just by sending e-mail? It must work, since I get an e-mail nearly every day (sometimes several) telling me about it. :-)

I received it from someone I know very well. we send attachments back and forth to each other all the time. Shame that these sick puppies have nothing else to do. They should take up playing BJ at the CSM Tables

Don't open attachements from someone you know, unless you know what the attachment is.

if your friend sends you a file and says "This spreadsheet shows my approach to optial betting at Casino X", then it probably wasn't sent by a virus.

But attachemnts without text, or with a vagues message "Please look a this file" shoudl nto be opened. Instead, send you friend an E-mail asling what is in the atatchment.

I received it from my father-in-law. He was unaware that it existed in his computer, or where he got it from. What it does is take over your email address book, and send itself to anyone on your list. After I had my virus removed, and notified my father-in-law, I received the VERY SAME email from him again. This one I did NOT open, and called him immediately. He had his computer checked this time (I guess he didn't believe it came from him the 1st time), and sure as Hell, there was the Trojan sitting in his email files. This email spoke of "family pictures". Any rate, my point is a person can be sending this virus without even being aware there IS a virus. They themselves aren't actually sending it--the virus sends itself using the infected person's email address, to people in his address book. So, be cautious of anything you must open--REGARDLESS of who it came from!

Potaire

Here is one quick fix.Get some of the excellent software available which actually scans all emails for viruses prior to you opening them, and then keep your virus subscriptions updated.That will eliminate the possibility of receiving any.Just not opening attachments from people you do not know will not work well, as mentioned in another post-due to viruses being sent to everybody in a persons address book.Generally, you probably will recognize the name of the person sending you the virus.Also, beware most viruses come as attachments, and are usually .exe type files.