Virus alert email: genuine?

[Serial_Apologist]

The following email arrived in my inbox this morning, sent on by a friend and expected to be circulated. It sounds scary, is it genuine? I can't delete messages without clicking on them, which automatically opens them!

"PLEASE CIRCULATE
THIS NOTICE
TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
ON YOUR CONTACT LIST

In the coming days, you
should be aware...

Do not open any message
with an attachment
called "Invitation
FACEBOOK", regardless
of who sent it

It is a virus that opens an
Olympic torch that burns
the whole hard disc C of
your computer. The virus
will be received from
someone you had in your
address book.

That's why you should send
this message to all your
contacts. It is better to
receive this email 25 times
than to receive E MAIL
called "Invitation
FACEBOOK", though
sent by a friend, do not
open it and delete it
immediately. CNN said it is
a new virus discovered
recently and that it has been
classified by Microsoft as
the most destructive virus
ever.

It's a Trojan Horse that
asks you to install an adobe
flash plug-in. Once you
install it, it's all over. 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 of their
function is saved"

Underneath it just says the message was checked by AVG (whoever they are) www.avg.com, released 04/21/12 18:34:00

[Bryn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Torch_%28virus_hoax%29

[Flay]

Don't worry, ignore it and delete it. I'm sure it's a hoax

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/08/10/olympic-torch-virus-hoax-facebook/

Today I had what appeared to be a genuine "overlooked bill" email from BT but it too was a hoax. Their email address appeared to be exactly the same but they had written "ebilling@bt.com" instead of "ebilling@BT.com". You can usually google for these if you add the word "hoax." Try this with "invitation facebook"

[Serial_Apologist]

I suspected as much. Thanks though, Bryn and Flay.

[DracoM]

AVG is well-known firewall software. They are using the initials to allay fears and lull you into opening.

[John Wright]

I can't delete messages without clicking on them, which automatically opens them!

Really? The usual way to delete an unopened mail is to RIGHT-click and then menu/Delete

[Serial_Apologist]

Really? The usual way to delete an unopened mail is to RIGHT-click and then menu/Delete

Many thanks John - I'll try that next time!

[Frances_iom]

I presume all sensible users of emails have removed open as HTML and also switched off any autoload of images as wells as Javascript - only Microsoft could imagine it was wise to allow any code to execute within an email program

[Don Petter]

Today I had what appeared to be a genuine "overlooked bill" email from BT but it too was a hoax. Their email address appeared to be exactly the same but they had written "ebilling@bt.com" instead of "ebilling@BT.com".

All my genuine BT emails come fom "ebilling@bt.com" (and I thought case didn't matter in email addresses?) so I don't think that in itself was significant. Perhaps if you hovered over it, or right clicked and looked at properties, there was an underlying false address?

[french frank]

Never believe any message which urges you to circulate all your friends and contacts; or says the virus has just been released and as yet there's no known remedy (erm, it will have probably taken several years to arrive in your Inbox). It doesn't matter who has sent it to you. This message has all the usual signs of a hoax. If you send it on, you're just spamming. hoaxslayer is the site to check with. Just put, here, "Invitation Facebook" and add the word 'hoax' in the search engine window. The Hoax-Slayer site will be one of the top hits.

This afternoon I had a new one - potentially more dangerous. It said:"You've just ordered pizza from our site" and detailed three pizzas and the drinks to go with them. And beneath this it said,

"If you haven't made the order and it's a fraud case, please follow the link and cancel the order." Wouldn't I just!
CANCEL ORDER NOW [link]
"If you don't do that shortly, the order will be confirmed and delivered to you.
With respect
Pizza by VENCESLAO "

Two noticeable things: the cost of the order was '189.34$' (being delivered from the US, was it?) and examining the link beneath CANCEL ORDER NOW showed it was a Romanian site.

So don't be tempted to click on any link. Hoaxes are simply annoying, but these could land something worse on your computer.

[Serial_Apologist]

Never believe any message which urges you to circulate all your friends and contacts; or says the virus has just been released and as yet there's no known remedy (erm, it will have probably taken several years to arrive in your Inbox). It doesn't matter who has sent it to you. This message has all the usual signs of a hoax. If you send it on, you're just spamming. hoaxslayer is the site to check with. Just put, here, "Invitation Facebook" and add the word 'hoax' in the search engine window. The Hoax-Slayer site will be one of the top hits.

This afternoon I had a new one - potentially more dangerous. It said:"You've just ordered pizza from our site" and detailed three pizzas and the drinks to go with them. And beneath this it said,

"If you haven't made the order and it's a fraud case, please follow the link and cancel the order." Wouldn't I just!
CANCEL ORDER NOW [link]
"If you don't do that shortly, the order will be confirmed and delivered to you.
With respect
Pizza by VENCESLAO "

Two noticeable things: the cost of the order was '189.34$' (being delivered from the US, was it?) and examining the link beneath CANCEL ORDER NOW showed it was a Romanian site.

So don't be tempted to click on any link. Hoaxes are simply annoying, but these could land something worse on your computer.

Perhaps the pizza is being delivered by long distance frisbee!


Best advice thanks, FF.

[Ferretfancy]

I don't bank online, so it's easy to disregard all those 'Phishing' trips. However, a couple of weeks ago I had a very convincing email from HSBC, saying that my account had been suspended, and giving a couple of links. Never, ever, click on suspicious links like that.
I contacted HSBC's helpline ( not using one of the suspicious links! ) and they have a password free route to contact them. Within an hour I had a phone call from the bank. They checked that my account was still completely valid, and all is well.
These people are absolute pests, but it would seem that the banks cannot do very much if the scam comes from outside the UK, as it usually does.

[Frances_iom]

never click on any link in an email unless you are very sure it is ok - the UTTER STUPITY of making HTML emails a norm means that the true destination of these links can be easily hidden (eg often the plain text version will differ from the HTML as in plain text it is almost impossible to hide the true destination) - likewise those Windows users who accept Microsoft's advice to turn off displaying file types (common in previous versions of windows) were unaware of the type of attachment - zip files and especially pdf's were an easy vector to use given Adobe's poor record in updating.

The other major failing is that the banking industry could easily make the transfer of funds very much more difficult - remember how quickly they turned off wikileaks when it threatened to disclose the emails from one of the main US banks

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't bank online, so it's easy to disregard all those 'Phishing' trips. However, a couple of weeks ago I had a very convincing email from HSBC, saying that my account had been suspended, and giving a couple of links. Never, ever, click on suspicious links like that.
I contacted HSBC's helpline ( not using one of the suspicious links! ) and they have a password free route to contact them. Within an hour I had a phone call from the bank. They checked that my account was still completely valid, and all is well.
These people are absolute pests, but it would seem that the banks cannot do very much if the scam comes from outside the UK, as it usually does.

I receive a virtually identical scam message purporting to be from my bank, Lloydstsb, about once every six months, Ferret. At least HSBC contacted you to reassure you all was OK; I can't thunk of the number of times I've posted this message onto the equivalent department at Lloyds, and have never received an acknowledgement.

[mangerton]

There are some examples here. Beats me that people are taken in by this sort of rubbish.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/examples.htm