wtf?

[Guest M***ell***A]

So over the last two weeks or so I have been receiving emails in both my personal account and my michelle.massage account from people who are on my contact list but have not heard from in a long time. Seems very much like some kind of virus or scam of sorts. All the emails have the same type of subject heading (Heyloo : D or Damn : D always with the : D in there) and basically an identical message. which I have copy pasted below.

Now my mother didn't raise any fools, none of my contacts, either for my michelle account or my personal contacts, have ever corresponded with me using this type style and anyone I know who has ever sent me a file or link has always told me what it is so even when I got the first one I was leary...

Anyway, just wondering if I am alone in getting these (on two seperate hotmail accounts) or if anyone knows what the 'F' it's all about?

 

Here is the message sent...

 

 

Heyloo!

 

where had you been? ...

anyway here you go

Must see... : )

 

It's Easy, Secure and Free!

 

Try it Now, (click here link that I didn't want to include incase someone hits it be accident and it Is a virus or something)

 

Thanks

[Ragnaglar 440]

has you in their contact list and has been infected therefore spamming you.

 

if you are upto date on your patches for MS and have the latest updates for your Anti-virus and anti-spyware.

 

you will be fine, just annoyed to death.

[OPC 100]

Look carefully at the "from" addresses. If they're all on your contact list and no one else then it's most likely your computer is infected and the e-mails are coming from your compromised address book (as the source). You'll need to get updated virus protection (AVG is free).

[Leber 1328]

Never click on suspicious links in any e-mails. Before clicking on any links, you can first test its safety via http://safeweb.norton.com/.

 

It is highly advisable to install anti-virus and anti-spyware on your computer(s).

[bassnut 178]

Odds are your computer is infected or you have filled out some form somewhere on the internet that gave someone access to your contacts. More than likely you got caught in a drive by ..... you visited a page and didn't realise they got your info. Update your anti Virus software. There are allot of good ones though some people will argue which is best. I trust Norton's Internet security though lot's of people will argue this. Another good option is go visit the Microsoft one care website and use thier free online safty scanner to scan your computer. This is a very good free tool though I would not use thier program you buy at the store.

 

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

[Guest M***ell***A]

Well I'm never silly enough to click on suspicious links and my AVG is up to date and showing nothing when I do a scan. Also my roomate uses the same computer for hotmail and doesn't seem to be having the same problem which is why I was wondering about it... Not to mention that my Gmail and Yahoo accounts (I have way too many email accounts! lol) are not affected...

 

I guess I'll just have to deal with being annoyed! lol

[jackoman 101]

Over the last week or so I have received 3 messages like yours from contacts I have not heard from in a while. I opened 1 but did not press on the link. Things are getting very sophisticated out there.

[bassnut 178]

there is so many things that it could be it is hard to tell I just mentioned the most comon. I have dealt with this so many time in the past with my X ..... it is amazing how easily it happens. I would suggest one thing though and that is to go and change you password for the affected acounts. If that stops it then the issue is that somewhere along the way you got hijacked.

[Guest *D E**a]

I have recieved tons of these too....I just assumed people were using it and it was automatically sent out to everyone on their list...I think it is safe as long as you don't click the link open...then it will send it to all your contacts

[Guest Ou**or**n]

I got one on my Hotmail account as well from a contact I had not heard from in a long time. However I didn't get one from any of my other contacts so I don't think it was me who was infected.

 

Of course I didn't click the link, deleted the email, made sure my Windows updates were done, made sure I was updated on my AVG (version 9 is now available) and sighed and thought how crappy both Windows and Hotmail are for security.

[bassnut 178]

Yes there is so much stuff going around now it is hard to Keep up ....... I just spent the weekend fixing a friends computer because she clicked a link ...... you don't even have to do that anymore but with the tighter security on Vista and now Windows 7 that is getting harder for unscupliouse web designers to get around now. Though I am sure they will find a way.

 

When I was testing Windows 7 I tried AVG for windows 7 ...... and was reasonably impressed with it for a small program. Not ready to switch myself but for someone that is on an older system that can't run Nortons, Kaspersky or bit defender ..... more so Nortons it is a nice little program that does the job. But keep in mind no security software is perfect.

[Leber 1328]

I am sure many are aware what spam e-mails are. There are many that still don't, unfortunately. I've included this URL below to provide e-mailers more info:

http://www.switched.com/2009/10/26/10-ways-to-spot-an-e-mail-scam/?icid=main|main|dl6|link3|http://www.switched.com/2009/10/26/10-ways-to-spot-an-e-mail-scam/

[Guest E**a]

you visited a page and didn't realise they got your info.

 

Internet Explorer is notorious for letting in all kinds of junk. Firefox is a much safer browser.

 

In addition to AVG antivirus (free.avg.com) I use Spybot (spybot.com) and MalwareBytes (malwarebytes.org) to keep my computer clean.

 

Many online virus scans are scams, but pandasoftware.com is a legit one.

[Guest S*rca****sid]

I think there needs to be a plug for Linux here...

[todosj 102]

I think there needs to be a plug for Linux here...

 

Ditto for Mac ....;)

Posted via Mobile Device

[mod 135640]

I like AVG, it does not slow your system down like Norton and Mcafee (and others) do. I recommend it to everyone as a great low overhead free anti virus solution.

 

I also recommend Linux to anyone who is just browsing the internet or doing simple spreadsheets and stuff... and of course I would recommend a MAC if you have the cash.

 

Both Linux and Mac are unix based systems and if your not running the MAC specific software you may as well go with linux. Many other unix based operating systems exist as well (any one of which are better then Windows when it comes to virus's and most will run on a PC)

 

Keep in mind that you still are not 100% safe as unix systems (including macs) as they can get unix virus's/rootkits ... good news is a lot less virus's exist so you are much safer just because of the numbers.

 

Be warned that with MAC's becoming more popular these days they are going to get more virus's and bad stuff that taget that OS... If MAC's ever became as popular as PC's they would be just as popular to write virus's for (and they are becoming more and more popular all the time) but when someone is going to take the time to write a virus code they want the biggest BANG for the time they invest (and PC's are the biggest target)

 

For just browsing the internet and doing spreadsheets/word docs/etc... a unix (Linux) install is the way to go, especially if you have a older PC kicking around that is brutally slow running windows... it will run Linux much faster and would be perfect for browsing the net!

 

Windows based virus's can't hurt the unix machines - unix based virus's can however (and that includes the macs)

 

Anyone who wants the MAC look and security without the price and does not care about running MAC specific software (just the unix software) here is a tip (but not for the newbie)... Apple heads up a openSource project called Darwin (Unix) and if you add the "Aqua GUI" to it you pretty much get the MAC OSX look and feel (but Mac software will not run on it of course) you can run openoffice and firefox so you can do all the office work use it for email and surf the web... and it feels like a mac.

 

Darwin is available for a x86 platform (but it does not run on all PC's) so if you try with no luck.. give linux a try too on that old PC (I prefer ubuntu linux myself to install for all my non-linux friends - it's friendly as far as linux goes and it's a stable OS).

 

Darwin is based on FreeBSD/NetBSD and Mac OS X is based on Darwin but of course MAC will not release a full openSource version of OSX as everyone would be installing OSX on PC's... and as much as that sounds like a good idea, trust me it's not...

 

A normal PC runs OSX just as crappy as it runs WINDOWS because of the mix match of hardware in your PC.

 

Windows is bloated and full of crap because it has to run on all sorts of hardware configurations (where MAC's are all built the same so they don't need all the other crap). If you start installing new hardware into your MAC that is aftermarket hardware you will start having the same problems all the PC's have.

[dunkinsailor 1220]

get a gmail email account, and set up autoforwarding of any current adresses to your gmail account. Reason: gmail has very effective spam filters, which dump any msgs it detects as spam into a spam folder, where u can review and even delete en masse if you want.

 

With this type of email arrangement, you don't store your contact lists on your computer, so even if a harvester somehow gets into your computer, there's no address book stored on your hard drive to copy.

[todosj 102]

Thanks MOD,

 

Well put, and though there are unix vriuses out there, Apple claims that none exist for the Mac. Their regular updates seem to eliminate them as soon as they appear "in the wild" so to speak.

 

I think you meant to say Ubuntu is a "friendly", not "unfriendly" OS, that is easy to set up, and I certainly agree.

 

For those who wish to try running OSX on a PC, their are quite a lot of folks on lifehacker.com who like to tinker this way, and call their hybrids "hackintoshes" - check them out at http://lifehacker.com/search/hackintosh/

 

I also agree that AVG is excellent for most windows machines, and free. in addition to that, I also run:

- SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html

-AdAware - Free http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

-Spyware Blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

 

They are all FREE (as in beer) and using all of those, helps to screen out most garbage, as some things will get filtered out by one program, and not another.

 

Spyware Blaster does not need to run in the background, it will "Immunize" your PC against many threats, and that is also how I use SpyBot S&D, mainly for the "Immunization" mode.

 

That said, both AdAware and SpyBot S&D do a great job of deep scanning for any spyware, and having a realtime threat detector running in the background, if you want to go that way.

 

I also love Gmail's spam and virus filtering capabilities - very slick.

[Guest Ou**or**n]

My teenager uses a Mac because they are 'cool' as is pointed out to me every time we watch tv or a movie and see the main character using one (Apple is huge on product placement). Even Dexter uses a Mac so hey, they must be good.

 

On the other hand I use tons of software that is Windows only so I'm stuck on the platform. I use AVG and its excellent.

 

However my whole issue with spyware dropped significantly when I completely stopped using Internet Explorer. I use Google Chrome as I like its simple interface and its blazing fast. However Firefox is also excellent. This simple switch will dramatically reduce most of your pc-related problems.

 

I also switched completely to web-based email. I don't preview emails and delete anything from anyone I don't trust.

 

IE and Outlook are the biggest doors used by viruses and spyware and if you shut them you'll go a long way to a better computing experience.

 

Oh, yeah - stay off porn sites ;)

[mod 135640]

On the other hand I use tons of software that is Windows only so I'm stuck on the platform.

 

Your not stuck. The new macs are INTEL based so you can DUAL BOOT them with windows and you can also run a program called Parallels in coherence mode that allows you to windows and mac at the same time (same desktop) as if they were once computer. this does not make your computer safe from windows virus's so make sure you use your MAC copy of firefox (or whatever browser you use) so you get the mac security when surfing the net... using a MAC email client would be a good idea too.. (easy to post over office outlook or any other client you use on your curren windows computer)

 

I think you meant to say Ubuntu is a "friendly", not "unfriendly" OS, that is easy to set up, and I certainly agree.

 

oops your right... I fixed it. Thanks.

[RubJunky 1954]

I've been running both Mac and PC's for over 15 yrs and I will agree with MOD Macs win hands down until a few years ago. I now run a quad core PC with 4 gigs of ram rumming XP pro SP3 and it runs as fast as my mac costs 2000 less then a top end Mac. As far as virus protection I only use NOD32 and atGuard 3.22 on my PC and I never get stuck. These 2 softwares is a good low cost alternative and very low on resourses.

 

Everyone should jump to Win7 if you can a big step up from Vista.

Hope it helps

[mod 135640]

Curious if anyone has tried Windows7 home premium running in 64bit version yet? I am considering doing the upgrade this upcoming weekend but don't actually know anyone who has attempted this yet from 65bit home premium vista to windows7... ghost first.

[bassnut 178]

I upgraded to Win 7 Home premium from Vista Ultimate .... both 64 Bit. I would recomend the clean install .... I did a dual boot for now just to make transfering files allot more easier .... though otther people that used the upgrade feature have had no issues with the upgrade. Drivers are simple and straight forward any driver that worked with Vista will work with Win 7. Some manufacturers have specific Win 7 drivers which I would recomend downloading. Some old scanning programs have a little issue with Win 7 but do work though a bit slower and I have disabled 1 for now till I can find a new version though I hardly use it and may just uninstall it. The only problem I really had was with BD Rebuilder (beta) which still has a bit of an issue with VC-1 Video encodes though there is a workaround untill an update comes down. If you used the Win7 RC Microsoft hase fixed allot of the bugs that were in the RC. Boot time is great with it taking me about 36 sec to boot compleatly to win 7 compared to about 1:12 with Vista .... same apps loading .... mind you I am using a top end system .... AM3 PII 965 .... which is OCed to 3.9Ghz your boot times might differ a bit.

[mod 135640]

The good ole days of overclocking my cpu's... I stopped after melting a cpu into the motherboard. No need really with the power these systems have these days I would take a few nanoseconds over a unstable platform any day - especially with the dual video 1G+ cards that do most of the processing on board the cards now.

 

The boot time would be nice however... I have considered a flash memory instant boot setup. My friend tried to set it up on his PC a year or so ago and said it still takes about 16 seconds to boot (not every instant) but it's better then the standard boot time I guess.