herewiss13: (Default)
herewiss13 ([personal profile] herewiss13) wrote2004-03-17 09:30 pm

virus alert

Just got an _almost_ clever piece of spam. It's disguised as "MAILER_DAEMON@aol.com and claims to be a mail delivery subsystem. The jargon and terminology, etc. were very convincing: inpenetrable techo-gibberish describing all the message protocols, just like normal postmaster returns.

Apparently I sent a message to someone known as "lunaqueen90@aol.com", and it's been kicked back to me as undeliverable. Of course, it's claiming that I sent the original message tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure I don't recognize that email addy either.

Oh yeah, and the "message" itself? An attachment.

If you recieve mail at "lunaqueen90@aol.com" and I'm on your flist, congratulations: you're infected.

[identity profile] nwhepcat.livejournal.com 2004-03-17 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Could be that an infected email spoofed your address as the sender, and lunaqueen90's firewall kicked it back. I got some of those during the big hairy virus fun of last September.

[identity profile] herewiss13.livejournal.com 2004-03-17 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Could be, I suppose. But I _only_ use Hotmail and I _never_ open attachments. Haven't ever had a virus, either (least not a visibly detrimental one).

So if it's spoofing me, does that mean it was somehow on my system anyway or did it just nab the address out of the ether?

Assuming, of course, that I actually _was_ the originator (so to speak). I like my version better. ;-)

[identity profile] nwhepcat.livejournal.com 2004-03-17 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I think the spoofing viruses grab email addresses from address books it infects, pastes them in the "from" line. I've never had a virus, but have gotten a few undeliverable notices.

During that last big virus thing, I got a an email, either spoofed or infected, from someone who left the fandom, and particularly hated me. That was probably sent all over the place, and was probably more people who've heard from her than have in the last year or two.