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Virus: You've Received a Postcard from a Family Member!
Examples: [Collected via e-mail, June 2007]
Variations: Other subject lines used with this message include the following:
A wave of malicious messages (like the one reproduced above) sent out in June 2007 employed that very technique, arriving in inboxes bearing subject lines such as "You've received a postcard from a family member!" The messages contain URLs that recipients are supposed to visit to retrieve their The underlying worm is the same one that has appeared in messages with subject lines as "Sending You All My Love," the "Laughing Kitty," the "Dancing Skeleton," as well as several game and music download offers. According to spamtrackers.eu:
The storm network is large enough to cut off internet access from any
institution its operators choose to attack via a "distributed denial of
service attack," in which hundreds or thousands of computers request files
from a server simultaneously. The entire country of Estonia was brought
down that way last year. The network is actually available for rent for
anyone who wishes to use it to send spam, host illegal websites, or stage
denial of service attacks.
Since many of these malicious messages imitate notifications from legitimate Storm is a serious threat for several reasons. It communicates "peer-to-peer" instead of via a "command and control" network. For that reason, you can't just disable a few computers that are feeding instructions to the others. The virus download is encrypted, so it is difficult for antivirus programs to recognize, and infected computers are updated by the peer network on a daily basis to keep antivirus programs from recognizing it once they are updated to recognize previous editions of the virus. The number of infections worldwide is massive, and a quarter of them are on major networks in the US like SBC, Comcast, and Roadrunner. That means that a bank or other business under denial of service attack can't simply block all traffic from certain segments of the internet, because it would be blocking its own users that are sharing those same internet addresses with storm infected computers as they log in and out of the internet. It is believed that Storm's operators are located in St. Petersburg, Russia, are known to the Russian government, and enjoy its protection. Since antivirus programs will not protect your computer, the most important thing is for people to be extremely suspicious about where they go and what they click on. Never click on any link in an email from someone you don't know. Never click on a link in an advertisement on the NOTE: Readers should take particular care not to confuse the real postcard/greeting card virus with the "Virtual Card for You" hoax that has been circulating for several years. Some of the "Postcard" warnings contribute to this confusion by including within them a link to our article about the "Virtual Card for You" hoax (or by incorporating elements from that hoax into otherwise legitimate virus warnings). Other versions of the postcard virus warning mistakenly combine it with elements of the Invitation virus hoax:
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 'Invitation' OR ONE CALLED 'POSTCARD,'
Regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens an Olympic
Torch OR 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.
Additional information:
If you receive a mail called 'Invitation' 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. BIG VIRUS COMING !!! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!! http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! I checked Snopes (URL above:), 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,' 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 i t. 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 Snopes lists all the names it could come in.
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