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Received this email to-day from a friend, who received it from others.
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
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Hi Teresa,
I had this e-mail sent to me a few weeks ago from a reliable source. He has also sent me other messages about viruses. I do pass them on to my contacts, whether they take notice or not is another matter. I write them down and stick it in front of my comp.
Ann
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When you get this sort of email, the first thing you ought to do is check it out for yourself, and not rely on the text "I checked Snopes , and it is for real!!":
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/virus.asp
Scopes say:
Since many of these malicious messages imitate notifications from legitimate sites, recipients should get into the habit of never clicking on links contained within notification e-mails. Instead, go directly to the web site of the card company, find the card pickup page within that site, and enter the ID code included in the e-mail. (If the message was a fake, the worst that will happen is that you won't get a card.)
In a similar vein, note that one way to check if an embedded link like http://www.barclays.co.uk/ is real is to hover your mouse over it and see what URL is displayed. If the real URL turns out to be http://www.barklaysbank.ru/ or the email link turns out to be [email protected], then you'll know how trustworthy this message is. Even if it looks OK, as Scopes recommends above, enter Barclays site thru your usual bookmark / favourites link to check it out.
My interpretation is that the implied underlying advice of being wary of unsolicited attachments is sound, but the more alarming aspects of the email are hoaxy.
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I get really peeved when I receive e-mails like this. It takes two seconds to google the ' virus' name and check to see if it is genuine. In 11 years of using e-mail I have still to receive a genuine alert.
In a similar vein many years ago the charity I work for sent out letters to all its projects and shops (probably somewhere in the region of 1000 letters) first class warning us about the "If you see a car without its lights on........." This was as a result of someone receiving an e-mail at head office and not checking the validity of it. Total cost to the charity, well I guess somewhere in the region of £750
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Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated.
I will certainly Google in future.
There must be a lot of people out there with not much else to do but put the frightners on us all!
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Contrary to what some of you think on here, we are not all stupid. I dont take things at face value, and as much as I can, i do check them out. I sent one of these e-mails to a contact, who never took note, and guess what happend to him. Yes he got a virus, funny that!!!
Ann
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I'm not sure whether or not the email is a hoax, but one thing I know for sure is that a few days ago, I was watching CNN and a banner running across the bottom of the screen warned of a very serious computor virus.
If you are unsure of anything that pops into your inbox, don't take a chance - hit the delete button.
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Here's the details from CNN's own website
A new sleeper virus that could allow hackers to steal financial and personal information has now spread to more than eight million computers in what industry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen.
Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm.
Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm.
The Downadup or Conficker worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, where -- although it has yet to cause any harm -- it potentially exposes infected PCs to hijack.
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure, says while the purpose of the worm is unclear, its unique "phone home" design, linking back to its point of origin, means it can receive further orders to wreak havoc.
He said his company had reverse-engineered its program, which they suspected of originating in Ukraine, and is using the call-back mechanism to monitor an exponential infection rate, despite Microsoft's issuing of a patch to fix the bug.
"On Tuesday there were 2.5 million, on Wednesday 3.5 million and today [Friday], eight million," he told CNN. "It's getting worse, not better."
Hypponen explained to CNN the dangers that Downadup poses, who is most at risk and what can be done to stop its spread.
How serious is it?
It is the most serious large scale worm outbreak we have seen in recent years because of how widespread it is, but it is not very serious in terms of what it does. So far it doesn't try to steal personal information or credit card details.
Who is affected?
We have large infections in Europe, the United States and in Asia. It is a Windows worm and almost all the cases are corporate networks. There are very few reports of independent home computers affected.
What does it do?
It is a complicated worm most likely engineered by a group of people who have spent time making it very complicated to analyze and remove. The real reason why they have created it is hard to say right now, but we do know how it replicates.
How does it spread?
The worm does not spread over email or the Web. However if an infected laptop is connected to your corporate network, it will immediately scan the network looking for machines to infect. These will be machines that have not installed a patch from Microsoft known as MS08-067. The worm will also scan company networks trying to guess your password, trying hundreds and hundreds of common words. If it gets in, even if you are not at your machine, it will infect and begin spreading to other servers. A third method of spreading is via USB data sticks.
How can I prevent it infecting my machine?
The best way is to get the patch and install it company-wide. The second way is password security. Use long, difficult passwords -- particularly for administrators who cannot afford to be locked out of the machines they will have to fix.
What can I do if it has already infected?
Machines can be disinfected. The problem is for companies with thousands of infected machines, which can become re-infected from just one computer even as they are being cleared.
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No-one is implying that anyone is stupid. When I first got one of these messages from a contact, I too passed it on to my contacts without checking. Thankfully someone told me I should check if it's real or not before forwarding.
However, I get cross when I have told contacts that they need to check the info before passing on the message who still send on the virus warnings. I've even had someone pass me a virus warning twice, six months apart.
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