Virus Advice... Options

[Guest_Sean Duffy_*]

Q. Why do I keep getting e-mails telling me I've been sending e-mail viruses to other people - usually folks I've never even heard of - although I know my computer isn't infected?

A. This is happening often lately, and it is a corollary to another common scam - the fake virus warning that appears to come from your e-mail provider's technical support staff. These things happen because it's easy for a malicious programmer to "spoof" anyone's e-mail address.

An estimated 90 percent of e-mail worms automatically scan contact lists and other files on an infected person's computer to hunt for e-mail addresses. The worms not only send themselves to those addresses, but also churn out infected messages that appear to be from the addressees.

As a result, if you get an e-mail out of the blue that seems to be from someone you know and it has an attached file, there's only a 50-50 chance it's bona fide.

If such a message gets detected and rejected by an e-mail network's virus-protecting software, the blocking system will fire off a response to the purported sender - something along the lines of "Hey, you sent us a virus!"

The problem, of course, is that when an e-mail worm is on a rampage, millions of spoofed e-mails get sent, generating millions of these automatic replies from virus protection systems. So even if your computer stays clean, your inbox can fill up with messages relating to the virus.

So what should you do?

Don't worry about the messages - as long as you subscribe to a virus-protecting service and you make sure it keeps itself up to date. The program should tell you the last time it got a new list of the Internet's top threats.

For added peace of mind, have the program scan your computer every so often (frequent Internet users should do it at least once a week) to make sure nothing untoward has managed to sneak in.

Playing off the awareness that your computer can be an unwitting facilitator for e-mail worms and viruses, some Internet dastards will send messages that are spoofed so as to appear to be coming from technical support staff at your e-mail domain. The phony messages will tell you to click on an attachment to clean your computer - but of course, the file is a computer wrecker.

There are usually plenty of clues that this is a scam.

First, home computer users ought to be especially suspicious because Internet service providers are very unlikely to reach out to their customers this way. For proof, reply to the e-mail and see if it bounces back, or call customer service at your access provider, Gullotto advises.

And be on the alert for other signs the messages aren't official.

I recently got one saying there was a large "ammount" of viruses emanating from my office e-mail account. The attachment claimed to include a "free anti-virus tool." Free? I would hope my company wouldn't charge me to put virus protections on one of its machines.

E-mail spoofing is also a popular tactic for spammers - and for the crooks who send messages that appear to be from eBay, PayPal or another Web service and say your credit card has expired and you need to send in a new number, along with your user name and password.

To be safe against that potentially devastating con, known as "phishing," don't click any hyperlinks in the e-mail, because they often will take you to a fake version of a legitimate site like eBay. And legit sites generally will not ask for your password in an e-mail.

[Begadoc]

Thanks for ths information Sean. It is timely.

A few days ago I was being bombarded with emails as a result of people receiving emails/viruses supposedly from me (my St Bees site web master address). Over the course of 3 or 4 days I must have received something like 500 emails!

It was irritating of course because some people who received the emails may have blamed the St Bees site.

If you find you do get a lot of spam mail, then try for 30 days free a piece of software which I use - Spam Inspector. It costs $30 dollars to buy. It can be downloaded from here

I find it more eficient at dumping spam than the Norton filter.

[Guest_Sean_*]

Hi Ian,

I thought I would post the message because of the problems that you have been having. I have been suffering from this too. It can be annoying people jumping to the wrong conclusion without investigating further. Hopefully my message will help.

In relation to Spam software, I use SpamPal to defeat the scourge of the web. SpamPal is free and very effective. There area various add-ons which can also be used to increase the efficiency of the program.

It can however be a little difficult to install for the novice, but help is at hand with the free set-up wizard for Windows users. See this link.

Best wishes in defeating spam!

Sean.

[Christine]

Thanks Sean,

That was very informative about virus advice. I am with Bigpond who filter out virus emails but still get the occasional spam emails, at the moment I am being bombarded with lottery winnings and people from Africa etc begging for my attention of course I know they are all bogus.

I have my Outlook Express set to filter them, delete and block them etc but sometimes wonder if I am ever going to win the battle I may try one of the spam filtering programs and see how I go.

Christine

[Begadoc]

I use Spam Inspector which I find more efficient than Norton's one which I have as part of my virus/firewall package. While it has no anti-virus function it is very good as a filter and has the added advantage that you can try it for free and buy it for $20 instead of $30 at present. See link in an earlier post I made.

For viruses I have two layers (three if you count the firewall which tackles it differently) - the ISP and Norton. The latter stops quite a few so the ISP doesn't get everything! The only time I got a virus was when I was switching to broadband and for about 5 minutes I was unprotected. Even in that brief time, something got through.

As web master for the St Bees site - I get anything and everything addressed to @ stbeas.org.uk (deliberately misspelt!) so you can imagine how much spam I was getting.

One blessing is that the porn has almost disappeared now. Apparently gambling and investments (is there a difference?) are better options for spammers!