Is this a Virus?

  1. avatar charlysays2

    There always seems to be some technical people in the know on this forum, I am not in any way in the know so......

    Can anyone tell me if this is a virus, I'm sure it is like.

    I keep getting e-mails that say delivery failure or urgent please read

    and its from people like mike.smith@royalhospitals or john.jones@trainingtech.com

    and its been loads recently and I dont want these fecking e-mails, I'm sure it's a virus but what can you do to stop getting them, or do I just ride it out and keep deleating them??

    I'm sure I saw a post on this recently actually but not sure...anyway, any help appreciated

    ta

  2. avatar eazy_rider

    Well, more information is needed.

    E.g. do you have anti-virus software installed? How many emails are involved? Are the addresses you listed contained within your address book? Are you the only person listed in the 'To' or 'Cc' fields in the emails you receive?

    It sounds like virus-like activity. It could be a virus, or there may be another explanation. Do you have any other unusual issues with you PC of late?

    Give us all the details you can. Especially, do you have anit-virus installed & up-to-date.

    e_r

  3. avatar charlysays2

    None of the names are in my address book, but they all look like personal adresses. They go straight to Bulk items too and there has been about 5 e-mails in 3 days.

    I have anti virus software installed yes but I've never attempted to open any of the attachements, I just delete the e-mails when they come in. If I attempt to open them would the software tell me it's a virus or would the visus go straight to my computer? I'm afraid to open it see. cry

  4. avatar Speed Demon

    It sounds like it might be virus infection on other people's computers. Some use the address book feature in Outlook to spread - so the next victim receives the e-mail from someone he knows.

    Do you work somewhere with a large internal network? That's the sort of environment where these things propogate.

    Sounds like you're smart enough just to delete the messages without clicking on anything, but you should make sure you have the best anti-virus software you can get, because there are flaws in Windows & Outlook that allow infection even without opening an e-mail (I'm guessing that you're on Windows & Outlook, because you wouldn't be worried about viruses otherwise...)

  5. avatar Speed Demon

    Oh, and if you have an internal PC support or security unit, you should tell them.

  6. avatar charlysays2

    Yes we have alarge internal network but these e-mails are going into my yahoo account does that matter?

    Thanks
    I'll get tech support onto it.

  7. avatar Speed Demon

    I'm slightly out of touch on these things - it's about a year since I've had to worry about them - but e-mail viruses tend to either send to entries in an address book (which can be a large global address book in an organisation - nightmare) or to use some algorithm to invent likely e-mail adresses.

    If your hotmail account is something like jsmith@hotmail.com or john.smith@hotmail.com, it could be the latter.

    Or maybe your address is "out there", captured off a web page or something.

  8. avatar eazy_rider

    Good advice from Speed Demon, although just cause you might not be using Windows doesn't mean your computer is invulnerable to attack or infection.

    You are right to delete the emails. From what you have said, it does sound like someone else has a virus of some description, and that you are receiving the output from that virus.

    Keep your AV up to date. 99% of the time it will alert you if you download an email with a virus. Yahoo also scans for viruses (although you might have to enable that feature on your account).

    Sound like you are safe enough for now.

    e_r