The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

over the past month I've recieved numerous e-mails containing viruses or similar programs, note to the innocent:  the files for some reason is 30 kilobytes pif format named as follows:
your document, your website, details, your music, word file, your details, your text, my deatils and document all in pif format my guess would be it run fdisk. I am not stupid. being that this the only place where my e-mail is public knowledge I know it's someone from here i think someone wants to get rid of me, several names come to mind. I'd like to know who u are and if notat least stop sending it to me as it's all obviously the same person as all you are doing is cluttering my e-mail should this continue I shall post the e-mail addresses that they came from.

TERMINATOR - the obnoxious one >:(

calm down. I've been getting them too, but I'm not accusing anyone. There are lots of ways people get your email. Maybe someone not of this forum came to this forum, saw your email address, and then decided to spam you.

ive gotten a few myself, along with spam from some online pharmacy pill buying. ive tried blocking sender, but they keep sending them to me from different email locations. ive testing a message block, by detecting common words in the emails i get. it will then delete them automaticly. will see if this works. they even have a site to undo my email, but it wont load. how nice...

~DEFIANT

Someone you know has the netsky, beagle,  or mydoom worm on their computer.  It's the internet spamming gangs that are "warring" with each other that you have a beef with, not someone on this forum.

More info:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.beagle.m@mm.html
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.netsky.k@mm.html
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.mydoom.h@mm.html?Open

Try using Mozilla or Thunderbird as a mail client; their baysian filters learn about the things you call spam, and work pretty well.  Also, don't delete mail automatically, you might delete someone's mail that you know...

Oh, and that website to remove yourself from their list?  It probably does load, but has a js, vbs, or some other web-based exploit in it.

Funny, I have not gotten any, yet my address is easier to get than flipping a pancake. Just look at the boi's.


(start J/k)
*Proceeds to get spamed to death
Never mind!
(end j/k)

If you have a good firewall\antivirus ( like my norton internet security 2003 professinal + norton antivirus 2003) it scans automaticly and delete infected emails, and you don't even know that someone sent them to you! ( unless you want to)

im using zone alarm pro and antivir. i still get the emails, but any attachments are locked out if found to be a virus, ect. its still kind of a hassle to delete all the *ahem*, crap, but its nice to know i wont accidently open something harmful. i think my personal rule filtering system is working. i have yet to recieve anymore emails from that online pharmacy *crosses fingers*

~DEFIANT

I've been getting those too. Most of the copies I get are sent to an e-mail account not mentioend here....or in most places around the web. So, Term, calm down boy. Your paranoia and lack of knowledge in all things Internet is likely to *cause* someone to start sending you some viruses.

Speaking of which, wanna send me a copy of that "pdf" file? I wouldn't mind having a look at it.

slicer69@hotmail..com

//in the shadows

Damn! He didnt fall for them! :P

Just kidding :)

Try installing Adaware, it eliminates those heinous tracking software and other spyware proggies.

I find it strange though. I've had a hotmail account for about 3 years now and though hotmail is supposed to be the "Worst" web based email, I've only ever gotten a grand total of 3 spam emails and no virii. Those three spam emails were when I signed up for a HL2.net account, and were subsequently blocked.

So, yeah, try adaware out, I bet you'll find at least 10 spyware items in your compy :)

Adaware has a tendency to crash if you do anything while its running, but it works really well.

First off it's not a pdf is a pif file with in short is a MS-DOS shortcut in windows if u run an MS-DOS based program EXE BAT or COM it will create a file of the same name with a pif extention(being that u use linux I don't know if it will effect or readable by u). Secondly Yahoo blocks it outand prevents me from dling it I'll see if I can forward it to you. and Thridly I don't have an anti-virus haven't had one since the last time my cpu got fragged maybe a year ago (Kazza), For some reasons the viruses I get do nothing if u don't have an anti-virus or take a long time to take their toll (trojan I'm guessing).  The last time it wiped out my registry and all functioning copies managed to get it working again without formating the drive found out later that it messed with my system files wiping required driver files no sound, VGA graphics, and no internet all my onboard devices.  I shall keep my word I will post the addresses of the offendersbecause overnight I recieved three more and obviously they are using phony addresses since Yahoo scans all attachments for viruses etc. and blocks them One was sent via a yahoo address. Think of this a final warning and they will be posted I never deleted any of them and Zeep-Eeep back up just incase I hear u do some coding better be safe then sorry. As a finalnote I am not overreacting I recieved the first two last month, then nothing until last week (maybe because I e-mailed them back a VERY angry e-mail) whaen these things just spiked I've recieved roughly 10-15 in this week.

Double post never mind the first two came on Febuary 29 I've recieved 11 since then restarting on March 15 4 days ago send from various ISP's (AOL.com, EGROUPS.com, YAHOO.com, MSN.com, BUGGNET.com, HOTMAIL.com, moric.org, verizon.net, optonline.net, weight-watchers.com, rny.com) all quite common. screennames Edited to eliminate confusion.
oddly the first two are 24k and the rest are 30k maybe a different file?

Edit: added ISP's got mmore losts more

TERMINATOR - the obnoxious one

It seems there is a need for some lessons on virusses and spam.
There are two main reasons for undesired email like this.

First, there are email virusses. These virusses come attached to an email. The subject and the body of the mail are written in such a way to trick you into opening them. Don't! If you do, the virus is bound to infect your computer.
Once an email virus has infected your computer, it will try to spread itself to other computers. This is done by sending new emails to others. To decide where to send these, the virus usually searches your address book and your mail folders for addresses, but sometimes it will also search other documents on your hard drive.
But many email virusses nowadays will also change the sender of the email. Sometimes predetermined addresses are used (such as 'support@microsoft.com'), but often these addresses are picked from the same addresses I mentioned above.
This means the contaminated computer will send an email to someone, while appearing to be sent by someone else. No "ID" is "stolen". In fact, the person who's listed as the sender doesn't have anything to do with the email.
The virus attaches a copy of itself to the email, the subject and body are filled in with something trying to trick the receiver into opening it, and the cycle starts all over again.
The owner of the contaminated computer may not be aware that his computer is sending these virusses. But nowadays, if you're an average user running Windows and Outlook or Outlook express, and you're not running an anti-virus program, you're either contaminated, or waiting to be contaminated.
What can you do about this? You should run an antivirus program which scans your incoming email and scans programs that are being executed, and (important!) regularly update your virus scanner's virus definitions,preferably every day. Also, never open an attachment unless you have a very good reason to do so.
Why should you care? If your computer is contaminated with a virus, then depending on the virus, it can for instance clear your hard disk at any given time, be used to distribute spam over the internet, attack other computers on the internet, steal credit card information, steal passwords, or send personal documents to people in your address book. If nothing else, it's bound to send contaminated email to your friends.

Now, the other source of undesired email is spam. Spam is usually email with a commercial message that is sent to millions of email addresses at once. Spam messages are often formatted in such a way as to mask that it is spam. Also, the sender is usually fake.
But while spam is sometimes sent through virusses (in an attempt to hide the sender), spam itself is usually not contaminated.
But how does a sender of spam know what email addresses are in use? Usually these addresses are automatically gathered from web sites, which brings me to the reason why I removed the email addresses from the message above. By placing an email address on a web site, you're making it a target for spam. This is why if I put my email address somewhere, I always write it as 'svdb at stack.nl', with no actual '@' sign.
What can you do against spam? You can install spam filters which try to recognise spam. This has reasonable success, but it isn't perfect, partly because senders from spam try to confuse these filters. There's also the risk (be it small), that a genuine email is recognised as spam.
The most important reason spam is around, is because it works. So most importantly, even if you are interested in enlarging or reducing your various body parts, don't buy anything. Besides, many spam offers are scams.
Even replying to say you don't want their email is not a good idea, as that will only confirm to the spammers that email sent to your email address is being read.

I hope this all will be of help to people here. As this is a rather large mail, I'll summarise the most important parts here:
- the reported "sender" of virus mails is usually not the person who sent the mail
- protect yourself agains virusses
- don't open attachments unless you know what to expect
- don't leave email addresses on web sites

Since you can't send the virus via yahoo or whatever, perhaps you'd like to upload it to me? Do you have an FTP client? More inmportantly, do you know how to use it?

Secondly, I know how a pif file works. No, it won't hurt my computer
in the least. It won't run on my machine. However, I'll still be able
to read/study it.

>> and Zeep-Eeep back up just incase I hear u do some coding better be safe >>then sorry
Third, I do a a lot of coding. :) Not sure what you meant by the above quote,
but it doesn't sound very nice. Calm down, son. You won't gain anything
with idle threats.

Oh, and on that note, one more thing: Writing "very angry" e-mails to
virus writers is a bad way to keep your inbox clean.

I allready forwarded it to you I can't upload it to you because I can't Download it yahoo prevents it. and Secondly I suggest u remove your E-mail from the previous post. Finally it was not a threat it was merely a precaution I see it this way u need 2 HD's install OS on one repeats for the other and keep all data on your secondary drive leaving the first one for booting only. Can't get much saver than that.

Saddly, you're e-mail is filtered out as junk mail, it seems. No surprise since you're sending me a virus. Anyway, as I said, I won't be running the virus. I can't (running Linux) so I don't have to worry about setting a virus off.

By the way, if you can't even downlaod the virus from Yahoo, why are you so upset about getting it in the first place?

It's the principle, like I stated here before this the only place where my e-mail is common knowledge, and if it's someone I've pissed off I'd like to know who my enimes are.

First of all, people's e-mail addresses (whether publicly posted or not) can
be found a number of ways. Perhaps you're in the Yahoo Address Book? Perhaps the virus just sends itself to random e-mail addresses? Perhaps
someone did directly target you? But chances are you're just being paranoid.
So it doens't matter where your e-mail address is "common knowledge". If it's anywhere on the 'net, it is common knowledge.

Next, since you make wild accusations, act so damn paranoid and write
childish posts, chances are you have a number of enemies. Espeically if
you treat others (besides from this board) this way.

99% of net users will receive e-mail viruses at some point or another. Ususally these e-mails seem to be from people they know. That's part
of the beauty of them, they seem to come from trusted sources.
My last suggestion is to realize that you're not special, you're probably
not being targeted and, chances are, no one is going to come forward to
confess anyway.

I wonder whether you just skip the long notes. I've explained all of this earlier in this thread.

You know, it's funny that you say this is the only place that your email is "common knowlege", but Google says otherwise (http://www.google.com/search?q=MTV2K12001@yahoo.com).

Kinda ironic, no?

You're that bored aren't you? How long did it take you to dig that up? I think you know what I mean to. So tell me why are you hatin' on me?

What sage is saying is that since google found it, that means that spam harvest-bots have found it.  Any time that you post your own email, change it so that it doesn't look like an email.
example:

user kkkwwweq domain www net  (if you want to email me, change kkkwwweq into an "at" symbol and www into a dot).

And any time a forum, mailing list, company or a friend posts your email in plain view, complain complain complain until they change it.

No, I'm not that bored. How bored is "that bored" anyhow?

I copied your email address to the clipboard, hit start+r, typed in "google ", then hit ctrl+v, edited out "mailto:", and pressed enter. Thanks to a perl script I wrote, this brought up that very Google page I linked earlier. So about 30 seconds, maybe a minute at maximum.

Unfortunately, I am not psychic, and as the meaning of your words is very vague, I don't really know what you mean.

Culture20 was already nice enough to state what my point was. So stop throwing out accusations at people trying to help you. It's very immature.