Beware of email virus
By patgalca
@patgalca (18181)
Orangeville, Ontario
December 27, 2011 4:00pm CST
I received this email yesterday and it spread like wildfire. I feel obligated to share it with everyone. The virus itself disabled my ability to email everyone in my contact list to warn them. Some people opened the link and I got the virus email back from them, others emailed me and asked me if I really sent the email, and I didn't.
The titles of the emails are called "check this", "wooow", "awesome", "incredible", "hey", "see this".
I had to get my service provider to do a major virus scan and clean up my computer. However I am still unable to send mass emails due to this virus. My provider is working on that.
Please, please, be smart and don't open any suspicious looking emails or links. When someone sends you a link to a video they usually put a comment with it. If you get a link and only a link it is bound to be a virus.
People that start these viruses are such jerks. All they are doing is destroying everyone's ability to communicate. They gain nothing. Get a life people!
4 people like this
15 responses
@bostonphil (4459)
• United States
28 Dec 11
I am sorry that this happened to you. I usually do not open emails that sound in any way suspicious.
I have a macbook and supposedly I am protected against viruses like this just because I have a mac. At least that is what my trainer at The Apple store told me. But I hope that I am never in any position to learn differently.
I have read that the only reason mac users are protected from most viruses is because the persons who write malware are not yet interested in writing malware for Apple Computers. That is because there are still many fewer Apple users when compared to window users. However, the postings go on to say that these criminals are getting interested in writing malware for Apple Computers.
It boggles my mind that someone out there is using their talent and intelligence to do so much damage to so many others when they could use the same gifts to do good.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18181)
• Orangeville, Ontario
28 Dec 11
One of my contacts emailed me that he was unable to open in. When I told him not to that it was a virus he said he figured he couldn't open it because he uses a Mac. Wish I had a Mac. 
You are so right. Use your intelligence for good and not bad.
You are so right. Use your intelligence for good and not bad.@bostonphil (4459)
• United States
29 Dec 11
I really lover my mac and can recommend a mac. I remember that my trainer at the Apple store telling me that you have built in protection agains viruses when you own a mac.
@LaDeBoheme (2004)
• United States
27 Dec 11
E-mail hackers, if caught and convicted, can receive prison sentences of 1 year to 20 years in the US depending on the severity.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
27 Dec 11
hi patgalca thanks so much for t he warning. I have microsoft virus protection and so far its done me well. I do not open any email with a link on it , I am very careful and now I know what to look for I
will really be watching for these. your discussion will really help 
people not to get these nasty viruses
people not to get these nasty viruses 1 person likes this
@patgalca (18181)
• Orangeville, Ontario
27 Dec 11
I think my guard was down because it was the day after Christmas and I had just gotten home from a family outing filled with drama. Think of the people who may have had a few drinks. They would be very vulnerable to this kind of thing. This was probably planned for the season. A hacker's way of saying Merry Christmas. 
1 person likes this
@LaDeBoheme (2004)
• United States
27 Dec 11
I never open e-mails if I don't recognize the sender. I also use the preview pane before opening any message and I set my spam filters high. I also let people I know NOT to forward me any jokes, cute pictures, inspirational sayings, cosmic happenings, or any of that other crap that makes the rounds because I will immediately label it as Junk no matter who the sender is.
You just can't be too careful these days.
Another thing to be careful of is when a friend's address book gets hijacked and junk/infected e-mails get sent to everyone from their address. That has happened to me, but usually I can tell by the subject something is amiss and by previewing the message, I can tell it's not from any of my friends regardless of the address. I always send my friend in question a message that their e-mail has been hijacked to put them on alert.
@iceorigin (66)
• China
28 Dec 11
Thanks for reminding us. I have ever had the same problem some time. What I do is giving up the attacked email address and get a new one. I sent emails to everyone in my contact list informing them of my new email address. If the old email address is not so important to you, you can also do this.
1 person likes this
@thewonderboy (7501)
• India
28 Dec 11
Hey my friend,
thank you for your valuable advice. Hope this will help every one.
So, did you delete that mail?
Is it possible to delete it ?
@patgalca (18181)
• Orangeville, Ontario
28 Dec 11
I called my service provider who used SUPERAntiSpyware to scan for viruses and deleted them all. Then he deleted the email and then deleted it from my deleted emails file. Even if you don't open the email you should still delete it completely.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
28 Dec 11
I think these people need to find better things to do also. I cannot afford to be without my computer or buy more of them.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
28 Dec 11
My computer just got hit with some sort of virus and appears to be completely wiped out. I really don't know what caused it. It was working fine and I ran some errands and when I came back it was frozen. I re-booted it and that is when it just went beserk. I can't do anything with it. I'm using my daughter's laptop at the moment and I'll call the guy who usually works on my computer tomorrow. I really don't have money for this but maybe he will take it and start working on it and I get paid on Fri. Ugh...it's just one thing after another isn't it?
@Chevee (5905)
• United States
27 Dec 11
Thanks for warning. I don't usually open any emails, very seldom do I check my emails. I used to get a lot of email forwarded to me. But now I am not that popular. But I do get a log of junk mail. However, I will be careful, you never know when this will happen.
@sijabatnaburjut (2171)
• Indonesia
28 Dec 11
Thank you for sharing this to all of us. I do emailing with Hotmail and I received a lot of email wherein the subject were signified by numbers. I didn't have any ideas what they were all and I just opened them. I knew it could a virus. I think Hotmail is not longer safe to do emailing, because it is under hacked now. I will not open them anymore, since I opened them, my laptop work very slow.
Anyway, do you use Hotmail ?
@SIMPLYD (90722)
• Philippines
28 Dec 11
Thanks for warning us my friend, about such virus. 
I am really so careful in opening emails. If it's from someone i do not know , i usually delete it. 
I am really so careful in opening emails. If it's from someone i do not know , i usually delete it.
@Robswife2006 (1208)
• United States
27 Dec 11
Thank you for the warning. I try to be careful but the truth is you just never know what could be a virus or not. I've had two virus' on my computer within the last couple of years. The first one I lost almost everything that was on my computer, but the worse part was the loss of family photos I had taken but had not yet put on a disc yet & our vacation photos that my husband & I went on. The 2nd time it had to do w/ my email, but in my case it wouldn't allow me to send out email at all, whether it was individually or mass emails. Like you I was so angry. These hackers just do this kind of crap just to prove that it can be done. They don't care that they are messing with people's lives & worse their saved memories, whether it be in the form of photos or home videos.
@patgalca (18181)
• Orangeville, Ontario
27 Dec 11
My biggest reason I am kicking myself is that if I had waited another few minutes it never would have happened to me because I got an email soon thereafter from the "fake" sender telling me about the email. By then it was too late. However, the scan my provider did was excellent and probably cleared out stuff that was there before that my anti-virus didn't catch.
@BarBaraPrz (45579)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
28 Dec 11
Thanks for the warning. I did get one of those emails from you today, and from another friend last week.
