NEW Email VIRUS WARNING! Holden in "Subject" line

[4hammers]

Hi All.
I have just had a couple of emails sent to me which contain the new "Bugbear.B worm" virus. These got past my latest VET anti virus, but I sussed them before they could infect my system.
They come on an emails titled:
"Chris Bunt" Re; Re; FC Holden parts & have an attachment.
"Irene Crawford" Re; Ebay item (I didn't get to record the actual number).

Both of these contain the virus.
Delelte immediately, as this is a NEW Bugbear & on the radio this morning, they were saying it is quite nasty.
Goodluck,
Rob J

[59er]

Thanks Rob, Will keep an eye out for those.Regards Kev

[RET]

Get a Macintosh.  Enjoy the immunity from PC Virii

cheers
RET

[4hammers]

Mate,
I was SOOOOOOOOOOOO expecting you to mouth off about the MAC virus immunity!!

Get a MAC, enjoy Virus Immunity & be one of the 2% who think they are the best

Just joking RET, I know they are a great machine for art & design & look bloody good too.  

Rob J

[RET]

Have I become that predictable? *sigh*

It might only be 5%, but it's the top 5%

Seriously though, even if a Mac isn't for you, get rid of Outlook and use a different email program.  Outlook is worth every penny it costs, ie nothing.  Nothing except your time and frustration with virii.  Eudora is a good email app, and there are plenty of others (plenty of shareware/freeware alternatives too).  One of the main reasons that these virii propagate so fast is that most people just use Outlook because it was loaded on their computer when they bought it.  So virus writers expoit this by focussing on the lax security in Outlook to spread their dirty work.  (The bundling of this app and MS Internet Explorer was at the heart of the anti-trust case against MS, FWIW).

If nothing else, make sure you turn off the preview window, and don't open anything that looks fishy.

The protection against viruses afforded by Outlook has been described as being about as water-tight as "a colander made of swiss cheese".

cheers
RET

[4hammers]

Thanks for the advice RET.
I have the preview window off, but was not aware of the other email programs that you can get. I just assumed this was it!!
Could you advise on where to access these other email programs? Do you buy them from computer stores, or are they downloadable from certain sites?
I like computers, but still consider myself an average user. Bits & Gigs & Bytes mean NOTHING to me.
BHP & Grunt & Bore are more my style!!

If possible, I would be happy to get rid of Outlook.
Would I keep the same address?

Regards,
Rob

[FC0058]

Hi Rob
Thanks for the advice I will keep an eye out and make sure I do not stuff up my new PC. I have only had it a week. My wife is in the IT industry and would kill me if I infected her new toy. I am a much better dog trainer than computer guru so I leave her to solve my computer issues while I solve her dog training issues.

[RET]

On download.com there are several pages of them alone.  There are other places like tucows.com that you could also try, but they all pretty much have the same stuff.

The page http://download.com.com/3150-2367-0.html?tag=dir takes you straight to the email programs.  Pegasus and Eudora are both listed on the first page, and they are both supposed to be good.  (I've only used the Mac version of Eudora, so can't say definitively).

As far as your address goes, that's completely independent of your email client.  You just need to set up the info in the new one.  Simplest thing to do is to go off-line, start them both up and click from one to the other copying the various necessary bits, such as email address, SMTP server, username, password etc etc etc.  If you have a hunt around in download.com you'll find utilities to convert your Outlook mailboxes to other programs - Pegasus and/or Eudora might even do that for you as standard.

Hope that helps,
RET

[4hammers]

Hi all.
RET, thanks for the advice, Oh' "Great Computer Guru"!! I went to that site & had a ball. I have installed one called "Incredimail Xe". HEAPS of fun. I have been playing around with it for the last hour. Super easy to install (it did EVERYTHING itself) & heaps of options. The kids love it. (And it was free)
There was something like 1,000,000 that have used this & it has a 96% positive feedback. Lets just hope it is virus proof.
There is actually another version that you pay for ($50.00) that is called "Advance". this one actually screen ALL your emails while they are still on the server!! You can delete any suss emails BEFORE they even come near you computer. Now THAT is cool. It am going to upgrade when I am 100% sure this is the one I want. $50 is nothing compared to what a virus can do.

Thanks again for you help,
4hammers

[ChrisB]

Hi 4Hammers, sorry you got a bug but I never sent you an email, I suspect you got it from ebay or as I frequent ebay often. I also got the other bug coming through as well but Vet caught it. Effie C also got it from an email I sent him but his system caught it. He rang me and told me about it also.
Glad you caught it and looks like I might try the other email system as well.

Cheers ChrisB  

[4hammers]

Hi Chris.
No, please do not think I was worried it came from you.
These things just go into any mailbox & grab addresses & names
I didn't realise that was your last name, but I was not for a second thinking it was done on purpose.
actually, I am kind of happy I posted this & RET gave me the advice he did. The new email thing I have is great. Looks good & I am happily sending emails to everyone.
Regards,
Rob

[Effie C]

G'Day All
I also recieved another email today as an auto return advice from ebay with the virus on it, system grabbed it thou (VET).
Looks like ebay may be delivering more than a great auction site
John M

[ChrisB]

I have tried another email system as well, it looks like fun, I got another email tonight from a fellow contact in Vic who also is a common user on ebay, it had bug bear in it again, Vet got it too, Vet has sent another update notice out tonight

ChrisB  

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Netscrape (Netscape) is another email program/web browser, I have used it for years. Together with Norton Antivirus, no virus has touched my PC (touch wood).

[FE_225]

Watch out for emails from <greymotor@hotmail.com> this is one of my email addresses and some one is using that address on infected emails. If you get one, don't open it!
I'm with Stinky, Netscape and Norton is a great combo, never had a virus on our system. Netscape 7.02 can also be setup to kill those annoying pop ups too.....

Cheers
Tony

[4hammers]

This is a direct quote from the VET site, regarding the "Bugbear.B" worm Virus.

"It searches any matching files for valid e-mail addresses. These addresses are used by the worm to send itself to, and also for the "From" address of messages it sends. This means that the "From" field in an infected message may not actually be the address it was sent from."

Basically, it is saying it doesn't necessarily mean it has come from the person in the "From" box. The scumbags just use that as a tag.
Rob J