Computer Virus

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:53 am

Today, I recieved a email supposidly from UPS telling me that an item that was supposed to be delivered to me could not be delivered because the sender put the wrong address on it. This email had a mailing date and a tracking number on it.

The email told me to open a letter that was attached to it and to print the invoice on the letter, then go and pick up my item.

Without thinking I went to open the attachment then my security system interupted me and advised me not to open it.

I closed the email and copied the tracking number, then I deleted the email to my deleted email section.

I called UPS and they told me that it was a virus. Then I deleted the email from the deleted email section as well. UPS described the same kind of email virus going around that I recieved, with the message about the wrong address on the item.

UPS said that they would not send an attachment on an email.

Two things I thought about after were;

1 My name was no where in that email, so they had my email address but did not know my name. Thats one reason why I am glad I don't use my name in my email address.

2 How would UPS get my email address? The email address would not be on the shipping label of the item.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:13 am

Odds are it wasn't from UPS. The clowns that put out these viruses disguise them by using established companies designs.

If you didn't have anything on order that was going to be delivered by UPS, or any other delivery service, then you should kill the e-mail at the server level. Don't even download it. There are many free programs out there that allow you to preview your e-mail headers and messages and delete them on the server.

I use a program called Poppy but as I said there are many freeware programs that do something similar. Poppy can be found at:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/poppy.html

Another good one is eprompter at http://www.eprompter.com/

As for getting your e-mail address that's relatively easy to get. If you ever bought anything over the internet using that address it's out there. Not all companies play by the rules and may have sold your address. It's also in friends address books. If their security is weak their address book may have been compromised and the names and addresses in it added to lists of spammers and virus senders.

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:50 am

Thanks Harry.

Oddly enough there was a hotmail email address on the page of the email itself.

I deleted the email but I just checked my address book and the hotmail address with the UPS name is there.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:09 am

I don't know what mail program you use but some programs automatically add an address to your address book if you reply to that e-mail. Not a good idea. Outlook Express does that unless you uncheck the box under Tools/Options/Send.

Personally, I use Thunderbird as my main e-mail program. It's the companion e-mail program for the Firefox browser as both are Mozilla applications.

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:30 am

I have Outlook Express. I just unchecked the box you mentioned.

Thanks Again.

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:26 pm

THANK YOU for posting this, Fargo! With the holidays fast approaching, a lot of people might be fooled by this one.

Our computer geeks told us that Outlook Express is a major target for this stuff.

I've read that one thing a person can do to help is when you send a forward to someone, take out all the names and their email addresses of those who are listed on the body of the message. I read that these idiots pick up a lot of people's addresses from those somehow.

THANKS, Harry for your posts on this!

Scary to know, Fargo, that they were automatically put into your address book!

You were soooooo smart to catch this in time!

We just had a bad virus on our computer. Some place that said it was associated with "Windows" popped up and said our computer needs to be scanned. When we clicked on the "x" of the pop-up to get rid of it, our geeks said it caused the thing to download itself. The pop-up would not go away, and another bigger screen kept coming on offering a virus protection system from this "Windows" company for $$. We'd of course click on the "x", which only made things worse. It got so that our computer sometimes would not let us access our email account or to go online. It had to go in to the shop, it made our computer so useless.

I don't understand what the thrill is for the creeps doing this stuff. They're not gonna be there to see all these strangers reacting to it. I don't open any attachments. They say if you don't open one, you won't get a virus. But I don't think that's altogether true.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:41 am

I don't know much about this stuff, Augusta, but from your description it sounds akin to poison pen letters, and even those who poison strangers from afar. (Like the Tylenol killings.) The perp must envision what the results are, and get satisfaction from that imagining. I bet their fantasy is better than the real result. They must feel powerful.

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:21 am

I moved the email address of the person who sent the virus from my approved senders list to my blocked senders list.

I think I will add any thing else like that may come my way to the blocked senders list as well, including spam.

twinsrwe · Post by **twinsrwe** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:38 am

Fargo @ Fri Nov 14, 2008 5:53 am wrote:Today, I recieved a email supposidly from UPS telling me that an item that was supposed to be delivered to me could not be delivered because the sender put the wrong address on it. ...

Tony, thanks for posting this virus information for us. I'm glad your security system warned you in time.

twinsrwe · Post by **twinsrwe** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:39 am

Harry @ Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:09 am wrote:I don't know what mail program you use but some programs automatically add an address to your address book if you reply to that e-mail. Not a good idea. Outlook Express does that unless you uncheck the box under Tools/Options/Send. ...

Thanks for this tip, Harry - I also use Outlook Express as my main e-mail program and have now unchecked this box as well.

twinsrwe · Post by **twinsrwe** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:40 am

augusta @ Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:26 pm wrote:... I've read that one thing a person can do to help is when you send a forward to someone, take out all the names and their email addresses of those who are listed on the body of the message. I read that these idiots pick up a lot of people's addresses from those somehow. ...

I wish everyone would learn to delete the e-mail addresses from previous senders before forwarding them on. I find it irritating to receive an e-mail which contains more addresses than the actual contains of the e-mail itself! Guess that is why I have gotten into the habit of always 'cleaning up' the e-mails I forward, before sending them on; I also end my forwarded e-mails with a request to please delete my e-mail address before forwarding on. All I can do is make this request, unfortunately, I can't make the receiver actually do this.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:23 am

Yes, those e-mails with multiple user addresses on them are irritating as well as being a possible source for spammers.

It is relatively simple to send an email to multiple addresses using an "undisclosed recipients" list. See this site for how it's done:

http://email.about.com/cs/netiquettetip ... 100603.htm

twinsrwe · Post by **twinsrwe** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:04 pm

Harry @ Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:23 am wrote:Yes, those e-mails with multiple user addresses on them are irritating as well as being a possible source for spammers.

It is for these very reasons that I 'clean up' my e-mails before forwarding.

Harry @ Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:23 am wrote: ... It is relatively simple to send an email to multiple addresses using an "undisclosed recipients" list. See this site for how it's done:

http://email.about.com/cs/netiquettetip ... 100603.htm

Thank you, Harry; I should have added this site to my post. I always forward my e-mails via the BCC option, unless I am sending an e-mail to only one person.

Another thing that I find irritating and which I 'clean up' before forwarding an e-mail are these: >

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:47 am

Does anyone know if it is possible for someone to copy your e-mail address ? Is it possible for someone to have your e-mail address appear when the mail is actually sent from their e-mail address?

Now I am recieving e-mails that supposedly come from myself. They show up as being sent from my own e-mail address. I am not sending them. No one else uses my computer and there is no record of them as being sent in my e-mail sent messages files.

They say not to reply because they have been sent from an unattended mailbox. They also say that I am recieving them because I subscribed to recieve notices about "alchemy special offers." they misspell special as pecial.

It goes on to say that I can unsubscribe by clicking a link that is shown.

Because of the spelling, it makes me think it's from a different country that does not have English as their main language.

I blocked the sender and my own email address showed up on my blocked senders list.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:45 am

Yes, it is easy to do.

A Usenet program like Agent (and probably others) allow you to put a "fake" name as the sender to disguise yourself. Agent allows you to send e-mails as well as post to Usenet groups. People sometimes wish to post without using their e-mail address. The program contains 2 address fields, one that uses the actual e-mail account data to send the mail and the other the fake one that displays what appears on the e-mail.

If they put your e-mail address as the fake name and sent you an e-mail it would appear as the e-mail came from yourself. At least on the surface. It still could be traced to the correct e-mail sending address.

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:24 am

Thanks Harry. It makes me wonder if putting them on the blocked senders list will block the actual sender or if it will just block me from sending anything to myself.

I also notice with Outlook Express that by blocking the sender the message still gets through but it goes to the spam files. I was hoping that it would not get through at all.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:26 am

Perhaps someone else can help you with Outlook, Fargo. I am not familiar with that program as I use Thunderbird as my e-mail program.

Thunderbird has the option of viewing the message source which shows both the address displayed on the e-mail as well as the real sending e-mail address. Outlook may have that as well, I don't know.

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:46 am

I found that Outlook Express has an option of puting e-mail addresses on a list and any messages sent from those addresses will not download on the server at all.

The other way by using just the blocked senders list The e-mails would not stay in my inbox but they would be in the spam file. This way I don't get stuck with the e-mails in any of my files, not my inbox files, my spam files or in my deleted files.

1bigsteve · Post by **1bigsteve** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 1:09 pm

I get that UPS notice quite often. I get similar notices from Banks telling me that my account is going to be closed unles I "click here" and update my information. Problem is I don't have an account with them and I know that my own banks don't have my email address so they couldn't email me if they wanted.

Some of these scam tactics can fool a person if they are not on their toes. We all have to be on guard.

-1bigsteve (o:

Fargo · Post by **Fargo** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:01 am

I found a section on my email where I can block e-mails that come in certain languages. This certainly helps as much of the spam I get is in languages other than English.