Genealogy Chat

Hi Kim....I did receive one e-mail and responded back via e-mail. Reason for what happened could be for a number of reasons. One could be spyware on your computer. Another could be you need to empty cookies and temporary internet files or it just could be a technical problem that GC/Friends could be experiencing. If I understand correctly, the two sites are connected in some way? At any rate, if it is or isn't the site, you still need to do the things mentioned above as part of your routine mainenance. Judy

Judy, I have just sent you 2 emails direct, but they have just been boombed back to me saying they had gone through "friendsreunited Dating" and couldn't be delivered! what is going on? Please don't gice me bad news! Kim

Kim: If I understood you correctly, you state that you recieved a message in your e-mail telling you that an e-mail you (supposedly) sent did not go through and this was a notice advising you of that fact. If that is the case it is virus related (or what is called a worm).....more than likely not a virus you have (but run your anti-virus anyway!) There are viruses out there that steal passwords and/or attempt to get the receiver of an e-mail to unknowingly download an attachment that is infected.....hence force releasing a virus into your computer and allowing them access to do what they want with your computer and/or send your computer crashing, destroying it. How it works: Someone downloads such a virus. Part of this virus steals the persons address book entries. The virus can then disguise itself as anyone of the persons in that address book, as well as the person who downloaded it and it sends out e-mails that appear to be from someone you know. An example would be, say I unknowingly,downloaded the virus. It steals my address book entries. The virus then disguises itself as me and sends e-mails to everyone in my address book. The recipients of these e-mails see an e-mail from me and they download the attachment (and why wouldn't they? We've all been told not to open e-mail from people we don't know....we don't think to check for viruses from people we do know.) At any rate, now more people have downloaded the virus and it steals their address books and the process is repeated, with the virus disguising itself over, and over again, using all the address book entries it's been able to find on computers it stolen from. In your case, someone probably downloaded the viruses and they either had your address in their address book or someone they knew had your address in their address book. The virus is using your e-mail address to spread itself in hopes that someone you know will open and download the attachment. The message you got saying mail you sent was unable to be delivered is a sign your address is being used. The recipient of that mail either had a full mail box or their e-mail anti virus picked up the fact that a virus was attached and bounced it back to the sender, in this case, you. The only way to prevent the virus from being spread is to make sure your anti virus definitions are up to date and before opening any attachment you've downloaded, BEFORE opening the file, find the file and RIGHT CLICK on it. A box appears and choose SCAN WITH NORTON (or whatever your anti virus program is.) If no infection is found, it should be safe to open the file. I hope I explained that in understandable terms.....you can do a google search to learn more about "worms." Judy

Bob, Have just received this email: From: Net Mail Storage System Subject: Failure Announcement Contnents: Msg from Microsoft(.)com Unable to deliver your msg to one or more destinations. it has an attachment, I have deleted it, but I am running Norton, so how would I have found out if this was a virus? nothing came up on the email from Norton like it normally does, and I live update everyday? Kim

I've had this e.mail sent to me twice, luckily I know that microsoft never e.mail you to update, so I deleted it straight away. Even so (Hot-mail's) virus checker quarentined it both times. It is a nasty virus though, so I have heard.

If you are interested in this stuff have a look at the Sophos site anyway: http://www.sophos[.]com/virusinfo/

Sophos has warned it has received reports of Troj/Dloader-L, which masquerades as an email from Microsoft but contains a Trojan in the attachment. The email may appear to come from '[email protected]' with the Subject Line 'Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Express) - Critical Update'. The message text looks fairly convincing until the last sentence which reads: 'Just run the file winxp_sp1.exe in attach and make sure to restart your PC after installation will be completed.' If the attachment is run, the Trojan installs itself and offers an attacker remote command of the PC so that it can be used in a distributed denial of service attack. For more information see the Sophos website.