Virtual Imager Posted March 4, 2004 Posted March 4, 2004 This morning I got not one, but TWO emails from someone purporting to be the 'staff' at my own website (There is no staff, just me) telling me that a large amount of infected emails and spam were emanating from my email account and that I could use the attached files to clean up my computer. Norton deleted one of the files... the other one was called textfile.zip. The senders were staff@**** and noreply@****. This is a particular nasty way to spread a virus, don't you think? In my case, there are not a lot of email accounts set up for my domain, but some of you might have quite a few and it might be that, if you're infected with this thing, all your users will think this email is coming from you or your staff and will open the attachments. Please warn your email users. I'm attaching the body of the messages I received: Hello user of Virtualconceptions.com e-mail server, Our antivirus software has detected a large ammount of viruses outgoing from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up your computer software. Advanced details can be found in attached file. For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "46222". Kind regards, The Virtualconceptions.com team http://www.virtualconceptions.com and Dear user of Virtualconceptions.com, Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions. For details see the attach. For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "80673". Kind regards, The Virtualconceptions.com team It's scary out there! VI Quote
Virtual Imager Posted March 4, 2004 Author Posted March 4, 2004 Thanks Thomas... I guess I'd better subscribe to that Security forum as well. Just what I need! I thought 'Open Discussions" and the 'Family Only' forums would be enough to keep me in the loop. Now I'll never be able to leave my computer! LOL Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted March 4, 2004 Posted March 4, 2004 lol, no worries, i just have a habit of subscribing to most things. Quote
mike Posted March 4, 2004 Posted March 4, 2004 That's pretty close to what I got the other day only they added a "3d" in front of any "actual" email addresses associated with my site. Quote
Virtual Imager Posted April 1, 2004 Author Posted April 1, 2004 And the beat goes on.... Judging from all the others who have posted with this same problem, it is rampant. I am still getting emails supposedly from the staff of my own domain (there is no staff... just me) several times a day that come with infected attachments which I, of course, do not open. It is really annoying. Mad!!! That and the bounced emails that I never sent to begin with. Those come with viruses too sometimes. I keep blocking the sender with IE tools, just to hopefully minimize these from getting through, but they must use different ip addresses every time. Hasn't anyone come up with a way to keep people from spoofing? Quote
TCH-Rob Posted April 1, 2004 Posted April 1, 2004 Hasn't anyone come up with a way to keep people from spoofing? It is called not having an email address Nope, be happy it doesnt happen with our home addresses. Imagine someone getting a home address from WhoIS and sending a bad package to someone they didnt like with that as the return address. Sure, the post office it was sent from will help find where it came from like looking at headers but still, that is some spoofing I am glad doesnt happen. As long as there are computers connected to the web we will have this sort of thing. In all actuality we are one step behind the spammers and virus writers. Quote
kaseytraeger Posted April 1, 2004 Posted April 1, 2004 I guess I'd better subscribe to that Security forum as well. How can we subscribe to the Security forum? Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted April 1, 2004 Posted April 1, 2004 (edited) I guess I'd better subscribe to that Security forum as well. How can we subscribe to the Security forum? Go to the Security Forum, scroll to the bottom of the list, select the Subscribe link. Edited April 1, 2004 by TCH-Bruce Quote
kaseytraeger Posted April 1, 2004 Posted April 1, 2004 Aha!! Holy slipped disk, Bat-Bruce!! It worked! By the way, "Holy slipped disk" was an actual phrase uttered by Robin on the original Batman & Robin show. You can see more of them here: http://www.mmedia.is/~bjossi/holy.html Quote
snipe Posted April 4, 2004 Posted April 4, 2004 Hasn't anyone come up with a way to keep people from spoofing? Haha - that'll be the day! For folks like me who run a server for clients, the very best thing you can do is being proactive. Tell them in advance that they might get an email like that and explain that it is NOT valid and urge them not to open the email. It also certainly helps if you have an open door relationship with your clients. I explained to mine that 1) No one should ever get an email from "staff@" - because that address does not exist... 2) email accounts are not arbitrarily cancelled. No one's email account would ever be disabled without darned good reason, and not without every effort being made to contact the user for them to rectify whatever the issue might be.... and 3) ANY such announcement would NEVER be explained by way of an attachment. Period. My clients are not exactly the most tech-savvy, but by contacting them bnefore they needed to contact me, its saved everyone (mainly me, really) a lot of headaches. No panicked phonecalls, no need to doing virus removals on entire office networks. I also explained tha if they EVER get an email that appears to be from my me or my staff that they have even the teenie weeniest bit of doubt about - they should not open it and call us immediately. It sucks that we have to jump through these hoops, but the only defense we really have (other than making sure you update your virus definitions - or choosing not to run windows) is to keep everyone affected "in the know". Plus your clients will feel more confident in the fact that you are looking out for them even *before* there are problems, which is always nice. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted April 4, 2004 Posted April 4, 2004 It sucks that we have to jump through these hoops, but the only defense we really have (other than making sure you update your virus definitions - or choosing not to run windows) is to keep everyone affected "in the know". Plus your clients will feel more confident in the fact that you are looking out for them even *before* there are problems, which is always nice. And even then it doesn't work. Because no matter how many times you tell someone not to do something they will do it anyway. Quote
snipe Posted April 4, 2004 Posted April 4, 2004 ROFL - ain't THAT the truth! But at least then we can be smug and say "I toldya so". Its the little things in life that keep me going... LOL Quote
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