You have received a virus ... er ... greeting card

[DoctorDoom]

Internet spammers launched a widespread attack on e-mail inboxes this month. But instead of trying to lure users into opening a corrupted attachment, they're concealing a computer virus in a link to an online greeting card.

Postini, an e-mail security company, said it has seen about 275 million such messages since July 2.

[snip]

In most cases, the subject line informs recipients that they've received a greeting card or a postcard from a "friend," "family member," "worshipper," "school-mate" or "neighbour." When the e-mail is opened, there's a link to a Web site that uploads a virus to the recipient's computer.You Have Received a Greeting Card From . . . a Spammer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002116.html?nav=rss_technology)

Forewarned is forearmed.

[Timberwolf]

Thanks, Doc...appreciate the heads-up.

[Kathy30]

HAH

In most cases, the subject line informs recipients that they've received a greeting card or a postcard from a "friend," "family member," "worshipper," "school-mate" or "neighbour." When the e-mail is opened, there's a link to a Web site that uploads a virus to the recipient's computer.

I don't have any of those, so there's little chance of me opening the card.

[DoctorDoom]

The nasty part of the attack is that the "From" line contains legitimate e-card sites such as 123greetings.com. The badasses make their evil very enticing.

[DoctorDoom]

Same scam, different wording. This is a typical one.

Neighbour sent you a postcard from NetFunCards.Com!

The sender and company change, but the rest is the same.

[Suzie]

I think recently I have got one of these a week in my spam folder.

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

I've consistently found almost every day several of these in my spam filter. I know what subject lines of real e-cards look like, and I know the friends and family that send them to me, so theirs do not get sent to the Spam file.

On a regular basis I am shocked at the evil that really exists in the world, :sad:.

[DoctorDoom]

What's appalling is that the large majority of computer users don't have clue one about even basic computer security practices, e.g., keeping anti-virus programs updated, not clicking on every damned attachment in the Inbox, and turning off the Preview window in Outlook Express.

[ThomasMore]

The nasty part of the attack is that the "From" line contains legitimate e-card sites such as 123greetings.com. The badasses make their evil very enticing.

Doc, that is exactly the nasty that I loaded onto my computer caught last March. Two days after my birthday, I got a "Blue Mountain Greeting Card," (I had received other, legitimate Blue Mountain Greetings in the past).

The really bad part of it was that my antivirus software sent up a warning flag, but I ignored it, thinking the mail was legit. Shame on me.

Doc, thanks again for your help in cleaning that bug out of my computer.