Potential Virus or is it a scam?

[Derek Mc]

Copied from another Forum I use....................

Just received this via email from my father...don't know how true it is, but thought I'd pass it on just in case

Subject: BIG VIRUS COMING!!!

FYI TO ALL.

Dave's brother is a very advanced programmer who does computer work for a living and has a high up status with Microsoft. He doesn't send these if they aren't real. If he says this is for real, it for sure is. Be aware.


VIRUS COMING !


Hi All,


I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!


I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!



You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.


This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.


If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.


It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.


COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.


REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

[plasma]

probably another one of them ones which self propagate.. A virus in its nature spreads... This email if like the others is just so that you send it to everyone you know... Thus spreading the email like a virus...

80% sure its a fake.. But will keep an eye out just in case

[Grumpy1954]

probably another one of them ones which self propagate.. A virus in its nature spreads... This email if like the others is just so that you send it to everyone you know... Thus spreading the email like a virus...

80% sure its a fake.. But will keep an eye out just in case

The wording, apart from the name of the virus, is identical to the last half dozen I've seen. I'm always careful what I open, so not worrying much.

[cj_quest]

"Stop your computer now". That's the dummest thing I ever heard. One thing is to delete the e-mail if it has an attachment without opening it and another thing is to shut down your computer. This is just propaganda...I'm sursprised there isn't also a message saying: In order to be protected..you have to use this"
And btw..there's nothing on cnn.com or mcaffee.

[Gayno]

Almost always fake chain emails like this.

[Hideous]

if there is cause for concern, you will hear about it from microsoft (if you use windows 7) or bbc news.
Please disregard these round robin emails, never once have they amounted to anything as far as i know.

[mparks8590]

never open attachments you don't trust

thats my rule

if you think you're infected then best way to check ( and be sure ) is to extract your hard drive from your pc then slave it off one you know is clean.

then run anti virus from the master. include one that checks for root kits.

quite a few of the free one chuck up false positives so better to use a full working product.... i like f-secure or kaspersky but neither is perfect.

then learn how to use a program called Hijack This... brill for killing hooks, unwanted start up lines or things you're suspicious about .....nearly allways someone else will have come across the problem in google search..

i've fixed 12 computers for friends in past 12 months with various viruses, furred up cooling systems, and hard drive problems aplenty

self taught and never charge a penny .

[bigmac]

The thing that gets me is it says it attacks the zero section of harddrive where information is kept
If it's zero then it doesn't hold any information as a formated harddrive writes all sectors to zero

[plasma]

actuallty i dont think it does, all sectors still remain with what was previously on there unless written with zero's by a special program to government/miltary standards... All a format will do is to erase the master boot record and let it start overwritting the old info

[mparks8590]

ha yes

this is why they can recover data from machines that have been formatted

only way to prevent data being re-read is to

a) get a 22lb lump hammer to drive - and enjoy

or

b) overwrite the drive data with a very large programme