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Message |
    
ceceliac
Citizen
Username: Ceceliac
Post Number: 15
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 3:24 pm: | 
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I have an anti-virus program that scans my computer twice a week and tells me that my computer is virus-free. However, I have been receiving lots of emails with the subject line "Delivery Notification: Delivery has Failed" and when I open them they list emails supposedly sent from me to addresses I've never even heard of. A couple times these messages were accompanied by a virus message from another network saying that the message I sent (which I didn't send) was infected with a virus. Clearly something is up. Any ideas/suggestions? |
swato
Citizen
Username: Swato
Post Number: 73
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 4:02 pm: |
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I received over 200 of the "Delivery Notification: Delivery has Failed” in the month of May alone and I just delete them in bunches as they come in. I do not open them, I just delete them along with the other junk emails selling, mortgages, get rich quick, gambling, "peanut" enlargement pills etc, etc, I don't look forward to opening my email account in the morning. |
magmasystems
Citizen
Username: Magmasystems
Post Number: 91
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 4:16 pm: |
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There are viruses which are capable of scanning your Microsoft Outlook contact list for names, and then using your mail server to send out bogus messages to people on your contact list.
Make sure that you keep your virus program up to date with the latest "virus signature" files.
Marc Adler
All Things Computered Ltd
www.millburnweb.com
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ceceliac
Citizen
Username: Ceceliac
Post Number: 16
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 4:27 pm: |
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the thing is, the people to whom the undeliverable messages have been sent are not even in my outlook address book. they are names
and addresses completely unknown to me.
i assume my norton anti-virus updates include virus signature files? is that correct? |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1529
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 4:38 pm: |
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Careful examination of the message headers, which are the tracking information that accompany the message, might yield more information, but it's not easy to give instructions on how to do it. |
jgberkeley
Supporter
Username: Jgberkeley
Post Number: 3023
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 4:45 pm: |
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No I would not assume that.
Recently, somehow, I picked up a Trojan horse of some type.
I seems to have exported my AOL log name and password out of my PC to some place.
At times when my PC is turned off, hundreds of Emails are sent in my name to people I have never hear of.
I get many angry Emails in return and the messages you see.
If I change my AOL password I can stop it. I wait a week and restore my password back to the one I like, bingo I'm in the mail business again.
My virus checker could not find anything. I called Mcafee and they downloaded a program that ran and confirmed that nothing is on my PC.
The thinking is, it was, stole the identity and exported it.
My only control now is to change the password.
Good luck!
George Berkeley
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lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1531
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2003 - 8:12 pm: |
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Nobody needs to steal your identity in order to send an email from your address. I could send you an endorsement of Ken and Kathy from Jerry's email address if I wanted. It's very easy to do.
Many of the most prolific email virus/worms out there send emails with themselves, or without themselves, no just to everyone in the address book. They also search other files, including the browser cache, for email addresses, and send to them, and they don't need to send from the address of the user on the computer they run on. Bottom line: This could be a virus/worm running on someone else's computer. That's why I would want to see the full headers of the messages, in order to get some idea of where they are actually coming from. |
#9Dream
Citizen
Username: 9dream
Post Number: 353
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 9:36 am: |
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It's also important to note that many viruses "spoof" the TO and FROM fields, deliberately putting a bad e-mail address in the "TO" field and spoofing YOUR address as the "FROM" address, so it will bounce back to you. This is supposed to fool you into thinking you sent the message, increasing the likelihood that you'll open it. And since the "TO" address is made up, that's why it's not in your address book. My guess is that it's not you with the virus but someone else who has your name in their address book. |
monster
Citizen
Username: Monster
Post Number: 26
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 10:19 am: |
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lseltzer and #9Dream have it right.
I get this from time to time, and as a matter of course I copy all headers with the email message and paste it into a email sent to abuse@comcast.net.
I don't know if they even look at them, but that is what I do.
A couple of times I've even been able to tell, by reading the headers, whose pc it came from. I chastized that particular friend about the need to update his virus definitions, and to tell him that if he bought and used a Mac he wouldn't have to worry about no stinkin' virus.
My Mac's have never had a virus, unlike almost all of my friends winblows pc's.
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shoshannah
Citizen
Username: Shoshannah
Post Number: 140
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 10:42 am: |
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Why can't a Mac get a virus? |
jamie
Moderator
Username: Jamie
Post Number: 302
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 10:49 am: |
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I've found that viruses hit Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express moreso then a mail program such as Eudora. That was a few years ago, not sure if the bugs are out of outlook yet, but some of the viruses could launch simply upon view an email, this doesn't happen with Eudora.
And as always, never open attachments unless you positive as what they are. Especially don't open files that have .vbs as an extension. |
monster
Citizen
Username: Monster
Post Number: 29
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 10:52 am: |
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It's not that it can't, it's just that nobody bothers to write them for Mac's.
Windows is so full of security holes that it is much easier to write a virus exploiting these. Also there just happens to be a hell of a lot more windows pc's being used than Mac's, and a lot of people that don't know how to take care of them.
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lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1538
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 2, 2003 - 11:38 am: |
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It's not that Windows is less secure, it's easier to write successful Windows viruses because sending out a bunch of emails you're likely to hit a lot of Windows users and not a lot of Macs purely because that's what people use. If there were enough Mac or Linux users out there people would write viruses for them. |
Phil
Citizen
Username: Barleyrooty
Post Number: 650
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 7:50 am: |
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If you right-click on the little Norton icon in the bottom right corner of the screen, and then click "Open" or "About" (depends which version you have), it should show you the date your anti-virus "definition" file was last updated. If it's much more than a week or two old, then it's not updating automatically.
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Phil
Citizen
Username: Barleyrooty
Post Number: 651
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 7:52 am: |
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Also you should go to Microsoft.com and go to "Windows Update" (there may be a choice for this under your start menu). It should (depending, again on the versions you have) scan your PC to see what updates you need. Make sure you have installed all the security updates for both Windows and Outlook.
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Phil
Citizen
Username: Barleyrooty
Post Number: 652
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 7:54 am: |
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And one last note. NEVER post your email address on a bulletin board like this one or on a webpage. The bad guys have programs that scan the boards looking for them. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1546
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2003 - 8:57 am: |
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For updating Microsoft Office you must go to the Office Update site. You will need access to the install files for your copy of Microsoft Office, such as the CD from which you installed it. If it came pre-installed on your computer then it came with the CD, although you may never have looked at it. |
ceceliac
Citizen
Username: Ceceliac
Post Number: 17
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - 9:59 am: |
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Thanks for all the feedback. My virus program is completely up to date and it tells me I have no virus. I guess the only thing for me to do is ignore these annoying "undeliverable" emails.
Maybe I don't know how to decipher such things but the headers don't give me a clue as to where they are coming from.
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lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1553
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - 10:26 am: |
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It's the headers of the undelivered message that are most interesting, assuming it's not a fake error. IOW, both the headers of the message to you and the headers of the embedded message are relevant. |
Nlanzieri
Citizen
Username: Nlanzieri
Post Number: 73
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - 4:25 pm: |
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My friends, co-workers and relatives complain about their computers slowing down, internet connections lost, error messages, and constant pop-up ads, even when they are off-line. These problems are the symptoms of spyware, and/or cookies installed on your PC that spy on you and send your personal information all over the net to solicitors. These spyware programs and cookies can install themsleves onto your PC and run in the background without you even knowing it. They will clog up your computer and give you nothing but problems. Virus protection will not detect them in most cases because they are not considered viruses.
Heres what to do in case any of you are having these symptoms. Goto www.Cnet.com or www.ZDnet.com and download a program called ad-aware. Its free. Install it and It will clean your computer of the invaders, clean out your registry of the same and get things back to normal. You can run in as many times as you like and as often as you like. It will also tell you how many spyware or ad programs have been installed on your computer without you knowing. Then search for a program called Clean tray. Download this program and install it and it will tell you whats running in the background. It will also allow you to delete programs from running in the background without your knowledge. (Be sure of what your deleting from your systray before you delete it.) THese programs and others that I use are criticial these days, particularly for people with cable modems or DSL lines which are on all the time.
If anyone needs further assistance with this or would like to know more remedies to these problems, Private line me. |
Nlanzieri
Citizen
Username: Nlanzieri
Post Number: 74
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - 5:54 pm: |
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My friends, co-workers and relatives complain about their computers slowing down, internet connections lost, error messages, and constant pop-up ads, even when they are off-line. These problems are the symptoms of spyware, and/or cookies installed on your PC that spy on you and send your personal information all over the net to solicitors. These spyware programs and cookies can install themsleves onto your PC and run in the background without you even knowing it. They will clog up your computer and give you nothing but problems. Virus protection will not detect them in most cases because they are not considered viruses.
Heres what to do in case any of you are having these symptoms. Goto www.Cnet.com or www.ZDnet.com and download a program called ad-aware. Its free. Install it and It will clean your computer of the invaders, clean out your registry of the same and get things back to normal. You can run in as many times as you like and as often as you like. It will also tell you how many spyware or ad programs have been installed on your computer without you knowing. Then search for a program called Clean tray. Download this program and install it and it will tell you whats running in the background. It will also allow you to delete programs from running in the background without your knowledge. (Be sure of what your deleting from your systray before you delete it.) THese programs and others that I use are criticial these days, particularly for people with cable modems or DSL lines which are on all the time.
If anyone needs further assistance with this or would like to know more remedies to similar problems, Private line me. |
lseltzer
Citizen
Username: Lseltzer
Post Number: 1558
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2003 - 10:11 pm: |
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Cookies don't actually run on anything and they're too small to clog anything up, but some can compromise your privacy. It would be a mistake to block cookies wholesale, as you would make browsing much less convenient, losing (for example) the saved login for this site.
There is plenty of real spyware out there that does evil stuff, and much of it is badly-written with the result that it can make everything on the computer run badly.
I reviewed 9 spyware removal tools for PC Magazine. In my tests SpyBot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software (some guy in Germany) is better and also free. Ad-Aware has a free version, but they charge for other versions that have features (like real-time protection) that are free in SpyBot Search & Destroy. Pepi asks for a donation. But you're certainly better with Ad-Aware than nothing. |
AZ
Citizen
Username: Azaltsman
Post Number: 118
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 5, 2003 - 8:43 am: |
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You can also go to http://www.spamcop.net, paste the headers and the body of the message into a form, and Spamcop will find the spammer and submit the abuse to the appropriate people. You will also see who the actual sender is as it gets past impersonation. |
#9Dream
Citizen
Username: 9dream
Post Number: 359
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 5, 2003 - 10:19 am: |
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I've found that running both Ad-Aware and Spybot is a good idea. Each has found things that the other missed. Note however that the default settings in Spybot are a bit on the paranoid side, and you may want to tweak it before running it. |
prodx
Citizen
Username: Prodx
Post Number: 81
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, June 5, 2003 - 1:21 pm: |
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If you don't have Norton Antivirus, get it. Make sure you update teh software every few days to ensure that you have the latest virus signature files. Symantec (maker of Norton) has a lab where they constantly watch for new viruses and how to stop them and fix them. If you do have a virus alreaady and norton picks it up after you install and update, you can go to the symantec website. www.symantec.com and get instructions for cleaning your pc. Sometimes just scaning doesn't work and it will require more steps. |
J. Crohn
Citizen
Username: Jcrohn
Post Number: 166
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 7, 2003 - 4:37 pm: |
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Hey lseltzer, I downloaded and ran Spybot. It found a whole collection of commercial tracking devices on my computer, plus a number of IE security holes, etc. I had the program clean up and immunize against listed intrusions.
Quasi-ignoramus that I am, I did not know my Norton antivirus and firewall software does not detect this stuff.
Thanks for the heads up--I'm forwarding the Spybot URL on to others. |
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