MSN VIRUS ALERT - NO JOKE

[Mystica]

there is a virus going on MSN which works like this:

 

The Virus uses the contact accounts on your list to send you an internet link.

The message àlways starts with a link and a winking smiley

 

DO NOT CLICK ON THAT LINK!!

 

You should close the window and not respond to it in any way.

 

 

Know that the people from whome those accounts are are not aware that this is being done with their accounts, so no fault is laid on them.

 

Post here the names of the people you get one of those link messages from, so they can be aware of it.

 

I'm not sure what solves it, but people should be at least aware of the fact that their accounts are being used. Then they can decide what to do. Either try changing their passwords or create a new account all together. I'm NOT sure this will solve it though, so don't throw rocks at me if it doesn't.

 

 

[Mystica]

People I've received this link from so far are:

 

Manny

Tessandra

[Elgee]

People I've received this link from so far are:

 

Vemynal

[Delenn]

an update on that virus.. some who have deleted the person from their MSN list may have noticed that it doesn't stop the messages.. have been talking to some on who knows about this sort of thing and this is what he has told me:

 

"Most viruses that send messages are not sending from the accounts they claim.  They infect one machine, and check that machine for entries in the address book, and then use one of those addresses to send stuff out as a spoof to make it harder to track back"

 

so if you delete the persons account you don't stop the messages because it isn't really coming from that account... or possibly even that machine the only way is to Block that IP address.. the real one.. and I haven't got a clue how to do that but maybe this will explain the continued messages ...

[Niamh Sedai]

I got it from Tessandra.  :-\ Only problem, I clicked the link. Because I'm a freaky internet user, I use AOL at home and as such it opened AOL to open the page. When it opened, it was blank. Nothing has happened yet *knock on wood*. I'm running a Nortons Full System Scan now.

 

What exactly does this virus do?  :-\

[Guest nephitess]

thanks for the update and warning myst. I have not noticed any myself but will be sure to post if i do.

[DeathDealer]

I've seen it from Taymist

[Cleopatra Narisse]

This virus can travel through any messenger. So even if you have Yahoo, ICQ or any other, if you get a smiley and a link, first ask your chat buddy if they sent it to you. If they say no, then tell them they need to run a virus scan.

 

The best free virus scan right now, is AVG. You can download it from CNET or,

 

http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10788045.html?tag=pop.software

 

Also, for those of you who get a lot of spammy pop ups:

 

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007/3000-8022_4-10766151.html?tag=pop.software

 

These are the top two downloaded virus/adware/malware programs at DL.Com

 

You can download these and check your computers.

*note* not all virus detections work well if you do NOT download their definitions on a daily/weekly schedule.

[Vemynal]

hey guys, something that might help out (and yes it affected me, plz alert me if you see me sending any more of those because what Im about to say i tested on myself)

 

When you click on the link it takes you to a page all in pink and asks you for you msn account and you password to "verify your account". It tells you on the page that you can find out who has blocked you/deleted you as a contact.

 

Basically, by entering you password and account the thing has access to your account.

 

what ive done is changed my password. so if after today anyone has been getting those messages from me plz tell me so i know this doesnt work anymore.

 

hopefully by changign the password the machine will try to autologgin but find that it can't.

 

[Taymist]

Grrrr do you know that never even occured to me Vemy?  :-X I've opened a whole new account. Tsk.

 

And just so you all know, Ad Aware and AVG are two that I tried last night (fully updated) and they made no difference at all along with RegClean, CC Clean, Symantec online virus scan and god knows all what.  ::)

[Tessandra]

Yea, I virus-scanned with Norton and AVG and it turned up nothing. I did just re-install MSN though and changed my password so hopefully that stops it :) Sorry about that!

 

Blame Vemy, he gave it to me :P

[Elgee]

I also opened the first link I received, which was from Tay, but it took me to a site advertising different games.  I just closed that when Tay said she hadn't sent me a link.  I have windows Vista with all kinds of Firewalls and bells and whistles on it - maybe that stopped it?

 

Has anyone received something like this from me?  I don't want to change my password without need.

 

I've also done a an AVG check, but it says my laptop is clean.

[Shendare]

It sounds like the only way to get infected is to open the link, then enter your MSN account name and password in the web page that opens.

 

If you haven't done that, you're probably safe.

[Cleopatra Narisse]

Two things...

 

1. Some of you might not have the virus and therefore have no sign of it.

But if you did get sent the link and didn't click on it you won't. Hopefully. Like Vemy said, clicking on the link and giving your password is the key.

 

2. Regardless of checking for "this" virus or not, still ... those two programs are excellent to download. This address book capture is:

 

http://www.bc.edu/offices/help/meta-elements/doc/articles/html/RX-AIMviruses001.shtml

 

If anyone of you have a solution to how to remove this, it would be great to have the link set in here.

[Mystica]

I only got it from those 3 accounts, which I blocked and deleted and since then I'm not getting them anymore.

 

Problem now is that I don't have Tess on my msn list anymore to pester... :(

[Thorum]

I had it in the summer holidays (sounds like the same one), and I noticed no effect (neither did my virus scan - bitdefender)

[Liitha]

anyone tried runing ad-aware? with some virus progs i had in the past, i actualy needed to do that for them to find stuff when it became aparent something snuck by the wall

 

 

[Shendare]

It's actually not a virus, or spyware, it's just a link to a dishonest web page, so the best anyone can do is take down the web page and try to educate everyone about not submitting login information to web sites you don't 100% trust.

 

In this case, you wouldn't want to submit your MSN info to any site that isn't msn.com, hotmail.com, microsoft.com, live.com, etc.

[Alys Kinch]

not that those people ask you for your information unless you are signing in.

[Monty]

there is also another virus that has been going around on msn for awhile, similar to what you said here. It's a .exe file, but it calls itself ###_jpg to throw you off, and the text that comes before it is usually something like "Hey want to see my picture before I put it on myspace/facebook (etc.)" and its just in general annoying, having gone around most of my friends (*g* i avoided it with pure ignorance, my internet was too slow to handle stuff like that, so when i first saw it I replied " I cant, internets too slow" and they said "what? oh, oh crap, i have a virus" and that was two years ago. It recently resurfaced in my other friends a few weeks past, and is still going around)

 

I have yet to hear it do more than spread itself around, but I dont know. I generally just tell people a few free anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall sites that I know. They've worked for me, in combination. I can post them here if you would like?

[Guest nephitess]

Oie...i got that one...i just closed my msn.

[Monty]

did it work? most of my friends send it without noticing until you answer them back

[Guest nephitess]

The link or the chat? the chat worked i said hello and they responded. I told them they send me somthing and they did not know. I closed the chat.

[Monty]

so you hadnt actually received/ accepted it. So far this virus seems to need you to accept and download it, and I think you might also need an unzipper, :p its pretty funny, my sister got it and it didnt do anything, because we cant unzip files.

[Little Miss]

I received a link from one of my friends not on DM

 

the link was to a very inappropriate site. >_>

 

I notified my friend about this with no responce so I thought it was an accidental and embarrassing post mistake. Nice to know it's not ^^