Virus Warning

[kriadydragon]

My dad just sent this to me. Since I don't have everyone's e-mail I thought I'd pass the word on here.

FYI TO ALL.
Dave's brother is a very advanced programmer who does computer work for a living and has a high up status with Microsoft. He doesn't send these if they aren't real. If he says this is for real, it for sure is. Be aware.

VIRUS COMING !

Hi All,

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!

I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!


You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.

REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

ETA: It has been brought to my attention that this warning is exaggerated. Though there are viruses that disguise themselves as e-cards, it's not as dire as what is mentioned above. But you know what? Viruses suck whether they wipe your hard drive or not. I've had a virus screw with my computer and Internet and for that reason, it's something I don't take lightly. I felt strongly that I needed to pass the above message on, and even if it is a hoax, I would hope that it would encourage you to do a little research or, at the least, remember to be careful when opening e-mail. Read below comments for further information.

Comments

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. Is it sad that even reading this, the message has the same tone as a real virus or spam mail?

*shakes head*

Will keep an eye out. Thank you.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I was actually wondering if this might be a hoax sent around to mess with people. I almost didn't post this thinking that. But, you know? Better safe than sorry. I do know there is a virus going around disguised as a "Hallmark virtual card" or whatever, and whether or not it's as dire as the above message claims it to be, it's better not to take chances. We've had our Internet hijacked through a virus. I?t always pays to be careful.

[doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com]

So I went looking for more information about this virus, and discovered that while there *are* various fake e-card notifications that have been going around for several years (and which include links that actually take you to servers that host Trojans and other malware), the "worst virus ever" version appears to be a hoax, and the Snopes page that is cited in the warnings is actually for something else. The following URL is for the Snopes page that talks about both the actual postcard/e-card viruses and the hoax warnings:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

I was just on this page, and it explains how elements of a real threat have gotten incorporated into an erroneous threat warning.

FYI.

[doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com]

Btw, I'm here via a friend's lj friends page, and thought I'd post what I found out. Sorry about glomping onto your journal.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I know. A friend just sent me to the site. I had a feeling this might be a warning blown out of proportions, but I didn't really care. I've been hit with a virus, and though it didn't do anything dire, it allowed the one who sent the virus to hijack out Internet and rack up one hell of a phone bill in our name. As I told Kristen, better to be cautious. If it's a hoax, oh well. If it's not, or there's at least a small grain of truth to it, then at least you're prepared.

[doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com]

I understand where you're coming from. Just figured that since I stumbled on the post and found additional information, I might as well share it. Viruses suck, in any case.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you did for others who will read this. I do know there is an e-card/virus scam going on, so the message isn't entirely false. Just... exaggerated, I guess?

[parmalokwen.livejournal.com]

This isn't "a little exaggerated," it's almost entirely pure hooey. As such, it's worse than useless, because aside from the very vague, general "be careful with ecards!" the information is false and the advice is bad. This creates pointless worry and distracts from real problems and real solutions.

There is no "zero sector" on a hard drive

Viruses are rarely written simply to destroy anymore. They are generally written to either harvest your personal information, grab your email contact list in order to send out spam and phishing emails, or surf the web and either harvest more data or post spam in various places.

If you haven't opened the email, you haven't exposed your computer to whatever is in it. "Shut down your computer immediately if you see this in your inbox!" is purest scare-mongering.

While there are viruses that come embedded in pictures, the simple step of disabling pictures in your email will foil them.

I can offer some more computer advice if you like (it's a rather long post).

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thus why I posted my ETA. Hooey or not, I would hope this post would encourage people to research. I've had my Internet hijacked. We ended up with a phone bill in the thousands. Luckily we were able to clear it up. My sister had a virus hit her laptop and she had to mail it to my brother to get the whole thing fixed.

As you say, it's really just a matter of not opening the wrong e-mails, and I think most people know that these days. You don't know who it's from, you don't open it. If some people don't know this, well, then they're going to learn the hard way as we did.

[ninja007.livejournal.com]

I actually looked over at urban legends (snopes.com ) and found that this is partially true and partially false. It was a true virus in 2007, but it's not going around now.

I don't know why this is going around again...

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I got a warning and I passed it on. But there was something familiar about it, thus making me wonder if it might be a hoax.