Let's play the 'name the virus spreader' game! :)

Thursday, January 29, 2004 by grayhaze | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

Okay, I'm getting heaps of these damn virus e-mails as a result of the latest idiot virus creation 'Doom'. However, I think I can at least help one person to realise they have the virus on their machine.

Today I got an e-mail to my PayPal donations e-mail account with a spoofed from address of 'ian @ stardock.com' (note the spaces to prevent further spread). So if you have made a donation to me in the past for my skinning work (and let's face it, that narrows it down a heck of a lot ) and also know an Ian who works at Stardock, you might want to scan your machine for the virus.

This public service has been brought to you by grayhaze.com and the letter 'V'.
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I.R. Brainiac
Reply #1 Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:24 PM
unfortunately its probably from someone elses address book that has you and ian's address.
grayhaze
Reply #2 Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:27 PM
Erm... yes... that's actually what I was saying IR. Hmm...

The point is, it's highly unlikely that someone would accidentally have those two addresses stored on their machines unless they had previously sent mail to them, or received mail from them. Both addresses do not appear online for the casual web browser.
kona0197
Reply #3 Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:31 PM
Hi Grayhaze. Long time no see. Thanks for the warning but i have never got one yet. I haven't had but 1 email this week.
goodmorphing
Reply #4 Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:49 PM
Well, the other day I clicked on a link and my firewall started going off. I ran an indepth scan from AdAware and found two malicious files which I deleted. I also ran an online virus scan which came up clean. Norton is up-to-date. I keep OE closed and seldom use it, my other mail program warns me of silent messages being sent (and I also keep it closed most of the time. Since all these viri have been going on, I have started using web-based mail).

..... and I don't think I have ian's address either (but didn't the information say that the virus tries to guess addresses?).
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #5 Thursday, January 29, 2004 3:28 PM
sorry grayhaze...I missed a word or two in your post...DOH!
Jafo
Reply #6 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:01 PM

GM...'up to date' means now, not a few days ago.

This virus and its second version are bloody annoying.....my ratio of valid emails to virii is about 1 to 20 at the moment....Norton is only 9 hours old from last manual update check....scanned my system for tell-tale signs...and am clean...but someone [or more] out there is seriously dirty....

Orion
Reply #7 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:28 PM
Virus making will be a hate crime.

http://www.satirewire.com/news/0112/hate_crime.shtml

[Message Edited]
Essencay
Reply #8 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:31 PM
1 to 20


Had that happen a few months back and had to change my email address it got so bad. I think it was in a 72hr period I got hit with upwards of 16-20 attacks. Don't exactly remember, just understand the annoyance you are now going through. Fortunately Nortons snagged them all before any got loose on my computer.

This thread is giving me the willies...going back to Norton's again ...now downloading the latest definitions
Rocky Nimda
Reply #9 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:37 PM
The addresses are spoofed, not only that, they are guesses. I have my own domain with a catchall account. I have recieved over 50 messages to users that don't exist on my domain. I also get messages that state these same users have sent the virus on to other domains. Again, they are non-existant users. So they can't be in anyones address book, they have to of been made-up. >
[Message Edited]
Jafo
Reply #10 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:38 PM

"Hate crime statutes are specifically designed to protect minority groups," said ACLU President Nadine Strossen. "I'm not sure the number of stupid computer users meets that criterion."

Hehehehehehehehehehe.....

goodmorphing
Reply #11 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:40 PM
GM...'up to date' means now, not a few days ago.


hehe... now, I am cumpulsive (read getting real paranoid) about it. I check every few hours! I check for updates on the firewall and AdAware too. Last I checked Norton it said I was up to date, then within two hours I caught it updating again! This thing is bad!
Jafo
Reply #12 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:45 PM

"The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment."

Yeah, right....and I'm the Pope....

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #13 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:45 PM
Glad you said that. I updated Norton first thing this evening, just done it again and yet another 316k of updates

Not that it would matter. My ISP intercepts all viruses before they reach me, and 99% of spam too.
goodmorphing
Reply #14 Thursday, January 29, 2004 5:55 PM
Microsoft has now offered a big reward for whoever helps catch the author.
digital_trucker
Reply #15 Thursday, January 29, 2004 7:04 PM
I don't get them because I have no friends
kongit
Reply #16 Thursday, January 29, 2004 7:54 PM
with digital_trucker. I don't get very many of them because my email server is crazy. Sometimes it even let me send an email.

I guess in this case its a good thing.
goodmorphing
Reply #17 Thursday, January 29, 2004 8:32 PM
Awhile ago I got fed up with my ISP mail. I decided to pay for a server that had better functions. I decided on fastmail.fm http://www.fastmail.fm as much for the storage as anything else. It has a lot of other features including the ability to make alias, storage, the ability to host my own domain (if i had one and paid just a little more a year), rigorous virus and spam filtering. I get some spam now and then, not a lot. And I have never gotten a virus through the mail.

No matter where I go, or what ISP I have (or don't) I can always have this address, or an alias. The storage is also very nice.
DesignCaddy
Reply #18 Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:37 PM
i'm also getting emails from admin@ on my email.. funny because i'm the admin, and thats not my addie. they just see a domain name and spoof a user. been getting a few emails from my mother's addie, norton's killing them on sight.. something runs through someone's address book, in this case its probobly my sister's in SC, and sends it self out as one of the people on her list. i havn't had a virus myself in a long time though.. tip is to keep your virus software up to date.

paying a norton subscription is something i've never second-guessed. you see more then ever where your money goes.. it pays these people to figure out ways to detect and destroy all types of crazy little things.
HG_Eliminator
Reply #19 Friday, January 30, 2004 12:23 AM
ok a good way catch a e mail virus is to put [email protected] this is an invalid e mail adress ..put it in your adress book if you start recieving *returned or undeliverable messages** that were sent to that adress u know theres a virus sendin hidden e mailout.....
Rocky Nimda
Reply #20 Friday, January 30, 2004 1:36 PM
Here is something I found on Symantec's web site:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]


The worm also prepends any of the following names to the domain name obtained:

adam
alex
alice
andrew
anna
bill
bob
brenda
brent
brian
claudia
dan
dave
david
debby
fred
george
helen
jack
james
jane
jerry
jim
jimmy
joe
john
jose
julie
kevin
leo
linda
maria
mary
matt
michael
mike
peter
ray
robert
sam
sandra
serg
smith
stan
steve
ted
tom


Yesterday I recieved over 100 messages to these different names on my domain.

paying a norton subscription is something i've never second-guessed


I couldn't agree more. Norton has protected me against every virus that has come around. It's auto-update feature updates my definitions within hours after they publish a new set.

#21 by Mr HG_Eliminator -


The problem with this virus, is that messages are spoofed with your email address on some else's computer. They aren't necessarily sent from your computer.

By the way some of the anti-virus programs out there, including Norton Anti-Virus, now scan emails on the way out for viruses. So, if I somehow did become infected, I shouldn't be able to spread it via email.

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