Email viruses: Infected postcards or greeting cards

[David Baxter PhD]

I am seeing a recent flood of infected emails (trapped by my spam filters) which appear to be coming from legitimate postcard or greeting card sites like American Greetings but in reality are sent by virus sites. They will encourage you to click on a link (usually just a numbered IP adress rather than the more common www.sitename.com format) which in all likelihood takes you to an infected website which will drop something nasty onto your harddrive.

If you check the headers (in Internet Explorer, click on properties and look at the actual From: address) you can easily see that they are originating from a Hong Kong or Chinese email address.

Check these emails VERY carefully. They will probably either not identify the sender or the name of the sender will be vague (e.g., "Schoolmate").

If at all in doubt or if you don't know how to check the email headers, just delete it.

 

[Retired]

Would it not be wise to avoid all greeting card emails, even though some are sent by well meaning friends and family?

IMO visiting the greeting card site simply confirms that your email address is legitimate, allowing the greeting card company to add your address to a spam list.

When I receive a greeting card notification, I delete the notification, but check to see who is the sender. If I know the sender, I'll send them an email thanking them for their greeting card, without letting on I never saw it.

That way everybody's happy

 

[sister-ray]

Steve, my friend does that too Thanks for the warning David.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Just thought I should update this warning.

I'm still seeing about a dozen of these coming through my website a day, many claiming to be from previously well-known greeting card websites.

Some anti-virus sites are now warning consumers not to open ANY greeting cards or postcard emails. That's also my conclusion.

 

[ThatLady]

I'd seen something on the news that was talking about these bogus emails, David. Personally, I never open a link in an email unless I'm absolutely sure who sent it. Even with the virus protection we all have in place, there's no sense in taking unnecessary risks.

 

[ladylore]

I do the same. But I do admit if someone send a card I do open the email. I will be a bit more cautious now. Thanks

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Just an alert: Now that it's December and the holiday season is again approaching, we're seeing another wave of the elctronic greeting cards email viruses. Expect more as we get closer to Christmas.

Remember: Even if the ecard appears to be from someone you know, don't trust it! At the very least, email the person it claims to be from and ask him/her if s/he sent it.