Recognizing Viruses

For more recent virus information, please click here.

Beware of email which appears to come from a company you recognize!
The newest viruses are very tricky. They appear to be from a company you know--including our company. Be leery about opening any attachments from any company, unless you were expecting the email and attachment from the sender. Also, be careful about giving personal information via email. (Note: You give yourself the virus. If you don't open the email attachment, you don't get the virus.) Current virus characteristics include:

Mail Propagation--The message-bodies are constructed with several parts to effectively customize the email and make it appear to be legitimate. Email characteristics include:

• From address is spoofed
• Subject may include:
  • E-mail account security warning
  • Notify about using the e-mail account
  • Warning about your e-mail account
  • Important notify about your e-mail account
  • Email account utilization warning
  • Notify about your e-mail account utilization
  • E-mail account disabling warning
• Salutation may include:
  • Dear user of (user's domain),
  • Dear user of (user's domain) gateway e-mail server,
  • Dear user of e-mail server "(user's domain)",
  • Hello user of (user's domain) e-mail server,
  • Dear user of "(user's domain)" mailing system,
  • Dear user, the management of (user's domain) mailing system wants to let you know that, (Where the user's domain is chosen from the To: address. For example the user's domain for user@mail.com would be "mail.com")
• Main message body may include:
  • Your e-mail account has been temporary disabled because of unauthorized access.
  • Our main mailing server will be temporary unavailable for next two days, to continue receiving mail in these days you have to configure our free auto-forwarding service.
  • Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your account information.
  • We warn you about some attacks on your e-mail account. Your computer may contain viruses, in order to keep your computer and e-mail account safe, please, follow the instructions.
  • Our antivirus software has detected a large amount of viruses outgoing from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up your computer software.
  • Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay Trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions.
• Reference to attachment may include:
  • For more information see the attached file.
  • Further details can be obtained from attached file.
  • Advanced details can be found in attached file.
  • For details see the attach.
  • For details see the attached file.
  • For further details see the attach.
  • Please, read the attach for further details.
  • Pay attention on attached file.
• Password information (if received as a ZIP file) may include:
  • For security reasons attached file is password protected. The password is "(five random numbers)".
  • For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "(five random numbers)".
  • Attached file protected with the password for security reasons. Password is (five random numbers).
  • In order to read the attach you have to use the following password: (five random numbers).
• Closing Signature may include:
  • The Management,
  • Sincerely,
  • Best wishes,
  • Have a good day,
  • Cheers,
  • Kind regards,
  • The (user's domain) team http://www.(user's domain) (Where the first part of the closing is selected from the list. The second part is always present.)
• Attachment May be .EXE .PIF or .ZIP
  • Attach
  • Information
  • Readme
  • Document
  • Info
  • TextDocument
  • TextFile
  • MoreInfo
  • Message