Postcard Virus Alert
Security and Fraud August 28th, 2007
My mom passed along this tidbit to me…
Apparently there is a virus going around the Internet that’s passed along via email. The subject line of the email will say that you’ve received a postcard from a family member. It will then include a link to the fake postcard which is actually pointing to a malicious virus.
There are several variations on the subject line including:
- You’ve received a greeting card from a school-mate
- You’ve received a greeting card from a class-mate!
- You’ve received a greeting card from a partner
…and so on.
Find out more about this virus on the Urban Legends Reference Pages at:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
Plus, if you want to brush up on email safety, read my past post Avoiding Phising Scams for some basic email security tips
April 6th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I used to get these emails all the time. Tell-tale signs you’ve received a malicious email include:
* Links that use an IP address instead of a domain name: What kind of self-respecting eCard website wouldn’t have its own domain name?
* If your email client has a tool bar that shows link locations (such as Outlook Express) and you hover over a link and notice that the actual location it is pointing to is different to what is specified in the email. (This is helpful for eBay Spoofs - of which there are plenty - too!)