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Teresa A. Suchy                                                                                                                                                            (319) 439-5344 or (319) 230-1677

6648 11th Avenue                                                                                                                                                                                 goclones@netins.net

Elberon, IA  52225                                                                                                                                                     http://showcase.netins.net/web/cats/

 

 


EVEN IF YOU HAVE PROTECTED YOUR COMPUTER FROM

 THE SOBIG.F EMAIL VIRUS IT CAN AFFECT YOU!!!

 

Even though I have Norton Antivirus installed and faithfully keep it updated and have NEVER been infected with the Sobig.F Email Virus, I wanted to let everyone know what has happened to me so you will be prepared if it happens to you too:

 

Today I received an email, part of which read:

 

*** ATTENTION ***

Your e-mail is being returned to you because there was a problem with its

delivery. The address which was undeliverable is listed in the section

labeled: "----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----".

The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section

labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could

not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a

general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to your e-mail

administrator.

--AOL Postmaster

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----

<mbmustang01@aol.com>

----- Transcript of session follows -----

... while talking to air-xb03.mail.aol.com.:

>>> RCPT To:<mbmustang01@aol.com>

<<< 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND

550 <mbmustang01@aol.com>... User unknown

I do not know who "mbmustang01@aol.com is.  What has happened is the hacker used someone's email address book (whose computer IS infected with the virus and who also happens to have my address on their computer).  They then "spoofed" (used my address in the "from" box) an email to all the people they wanted to send the virus to hoping to infect more computers (one recipient of which was mbmustang01).  I am getting "returned mail" messages because of this (only for the email addresses that are invalid).  So far only one, but I've read on forums on the net where some people are getting hundreds per hour!  I also run the risk of A LOT of people contacting me and complaining that I sent them a virus in my email attachment even though I was not actually the one who sent the email!

The good thing is this virus does not cause any direct damage to an infected machine and is set to expire September 10th.

The bad is...well you can imagine...the number of emails and UPSET people due to this worm virus...

Usually this worm arrives in an attachment with a ".pif" extension, but to be safe...NEVER OPEN ATTACHMENTS FROM SOMEONE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE FROM.  Well, I guess I have to modify that because obviously there are emails being sent "from" me which have the virus in the attachment SO...I would never open emails unless you know the person actually sent it to you, otherwise I would save the attachment to your computer and virus scan the file before opening it.   Click here if you need assistance in doing this.