E-Card Virus / Postcard Alert
Posted by cotojo on February 4, 2008
The emails containing a virus link are continuing with their annual rounds. There are many variations, most of which are listed further down this article. As always, there are also many hoaxes going around at the same time, and people act upon the information by forwarding on to all of their contacts. See bottom of article for information on ‘Invitation virus hoax.’
This particular one prompts you to download your ecard from American Greetings. e-cards are viewed online NOT downloaded, if you receive one of these DELETE it immediately. Under no circumstances open it.
The person sending these was using tinyurl.com as a disguise and has since been removed from their network. It is only a matter of time before this individual appears with a site elsewhere.
This one was released for Valentine’s Day in the hope that recipients believe they have a secret admirer, others have followed since.
From:E-cards Online (americangreetings.com)
Subject: You have received an e-card from someone who loves you!
Contents:
Dear friend,
You have received an e-card from someone who is thinking of you but who is far away.
See what your friend want to express .
Download your e-card here :
https://*******************.com/online/*********** (link removed by me)
Hope you enjoy your e-card !
best regards,
American Greetings E-cards !
If you open this it will attempt to download a file to your computer which is infected with a Trojan.
American Greetings is a genuine ecard provider and is largely used by Yahoo users who can access free e-cards through their Yahoo account.
I picked it up using a link scanner and can confirm that this one is NOT a hoax but is a very real danger to anyone downloading it.
********************
There is another email circulating with just a link contained in the body, the link is something like this: http://81.***.***.***/
Came from federated*******fl.6ht@jmmdhs.com
With subject line: Lovetrain
This then forwards you to http://81.***.***.***/valentine.exe
********************
Another example:
***** has sent you an ecard.
To view your ecard, Click on the following link:
http://www.americangreetings.*********.com
Please do not reply to this email. Thank you!
Your friends at AmericanGreetings.
This one prompts you to install the following add-on ‘Adobe Flash Player’
Please remember that ecards are NOT downloaded and any such emails should be deleted. Also ensure that all of you security is updated and patches installed.
********************
Another example:
From: postcards1001
You just recieved an electronic card! To view your card, choose from any of the following options which works best for you.
——–
Method 1
——–
Just click on the following Internet address (if that doesn’t work for you, copy & paste the address onto your browser’s address box.)
http://cards.*********************.com/
——–
Method 2
——–
Copy & paste your card number in the view card box at http://www.greet**********.com
Your card number is ZBM80616180922460 (For your convenience, the greeting card will be available for the next 30 days)
Webmaster,
http://www.greet**********.com
Other known subject variations used for these emails include:
You’ve received a Hallmark E-Card!
You’ve received a greeting card from a school-mate!
You’ve received a greeting ecard from a class mate!
You’ve received a greeting ecard from a neighbour!
You’ve received a greeting postcard from a partner!
You’ve received a greeting postcard from a worshipper!
You’ve received a postcard from a family member!
You’ve received a postcard from a neighbour!
You’ve received a postcard from a worshipper!
You’ve received an ecard from a colleague!
Class-mate sent you an ecard from vintagepostcards.com!
Colleague sent you a greeting ecard from postcardsfrom.com!
School mate sent you a greeting ecard from greetingcard.org!
Family member sent you a postcard from dgreetings.com!
Neighbour sent you a greeting ecard from NetFunCards.com!
School-mate sent you an ecard from mypostcards.com!
Worshipper sent you an ecard from greetingcard.org!
Colleague sent you a postcard from egreetings.com!
Neighbour sent you a greeting ecard from all-yours.net!
School friend sent you an ecard from postcards.org!
Holiday e-card
Movie-quality e-card
Love postcard
Birthday e-card
Thank you card
Musical postcard
Funny postcard
All links have been disabled by me for your safety.
ALL of the links within these emails require an instant download in the form of an exe file…..there is NO e-card and there is NO site, just an executable file which contains a Trojan and another that contains a Worm.
Readers should take care not to confuse the real postcard/greeting card virus with the ‘Virtual Card for You’ hoax that has been in circulation for a number of years.
The hoax is usually in the following format:
Invitation virus hoax:
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘Invitation’ OR one called ‘Postcard’, Regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens an Olympic Torch OR A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone Who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list.
This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts.
It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive a mail called ‘Invitation’ even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it. Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for This kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
The related viruses do NOT burn or zero your hard drive! They turn your computer into an attacker bot in an attempt to collectively bring down servers or cause widespread Denial of Service in which hundreds or thousands of computers requests files from a server at the same time. Also bear in mind that normally only unpatched Windows-based systems are vulnerable, as these have been doing the rounds for several years and updates now protect those that install updates regularly.
Related Post:
Have You Received a Postcard/eCard?
February 5, 2008 at 12:03 am
Thanks for the update. I will be on the look-out!!
You’re the best:)
February 5, 2008 at 1:26 am
Jackie - You’re most welcome my friend.
This one has been released for Valentine’s Day in the hope that recipients believe they have a secret admirer!
There’s always something going around, but these are timed for specific days.
Have a great evening,
God Bless my dear friend,
Colin
February 5, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for the warning about the virus, Colin!
Glad you’ll give the groundhog meme the old college try! Let me know when it’s done. I’d love to read it!
February 5, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Maryt - You’re most welcome my friend
This is another nasty doing the rounds again!
Will let you know when I have posted Groundhog meme lol
Have a great day,
Colin
February 6, 2008 at 10:26 am
I am so wary now of any emails purporting to send greetings cards. I have started using less well known ones myself now so that it is less likely to be a site that has been the target of these hoaxes.
February 6, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Sue - It is something that everyone needs to be very wary of, especially as in this instance they are using a well known company and many yahoo users use this one.
I’m always on the look out for viruses etc, and when I received this email I scanned it as I always do, more out of curiosity as I usually just delete them, but with Valentine’s day just around the corner I had a pretty good idea what was going to be in this one!
Take care my dear friend and have a great day,
Colin
February 14, 2008 at 8:20 am
Im worried now I just sent all my friends a ecard for valentine day today I hope I didn’t send them somthing bad
February 14, 2008 at 10:53 am
Mary - For many there is no need to be worried, most ecards ARE genuine, the problem is with those that contain a link asking you to download to view it, which is why it is important to remember that ecards are viewed online and do NOT prompt to download.
Have a Happy Valentine’s Day,
Colin
February 14, 2008 at 5:02 pm
[...] is infected with a Trojan. I picked it up using a link scanner and can confirm that this … credit : [...]
February 15, 2008 at 10:06 am
I received this kind of e-card too , I just noticed it was exe file so i ignored it immediately.
Nice blog you got here, Faved you in Technorati!
February 15, 2008 at 12:24 pm
bittersweetcollide - Thank you for your visit and comment
Sadly there are a lot of these around again, some with .exe and others using the ploy of installing Adobe Flash which in this instance also contains trojan.
Have a great weekend ahead,
Colin
February 15, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Thanks Cotojo, Everything ended up ok and everyone loved my ecard I really like your site. Im a first time computer user and very scard to use my computer because of stuff like that around. I never know what sites to use or not. Hope your valentines went well. Thanks agian for all the info!!!!
February 15, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Hi My Friend!
Thank-you Colin for this important info. I have gotten in a habit of not downloading anything that comes in via email.
Thanks again.
Kathy
February 15, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Mary - You’re most welcome
I’m pleased to hear that everything went fine and it is pleasing to know that you like the info I provide. More and more people are joining the internet each day and hopefully some of this will be of benefit to them, as well as to more seasoned users.
Have a wonderful day and weekend ahead,
Colin
February 15, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Kathy - Hello my dear friend
You’re most welcome, there is so much bad email around now and I’m sure that many will have downloaded from the likes of these believing that they have a card from a friend. It is sad that people are spammed with this stuff!
Have a great day and weekend ahead my dear friend,
Take care,
Colin
February 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Thank you for the warning.
Your information helps to recognize the fraud in time, but is it possible to understand that? I can’t love bad people (the thieves for example), but their goal is the obvious. Meanwhile what profit can have the creators of viruses? What for do they invest their time and energy? Where from do appear such people? The reality threatens - thank you for the warning
February 17, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Tomas -You’re welcome my friend.
Sadly there are many that seem to enjoy creating viruses and other malicious scripts just for fun In some cases they hope that the sheer volume of traffic generated will bring host servers down or even infect the hosts just to say ‘I did it’.
It is very sad really and if, as in this case, a warning is necessry I will post it.
Have a good day and week ahead,
Colin
February 18, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Thanks for the info. The people that do this kind of thing are disgusting. Glad he got caught.
February 18, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Chris - You’re most welcome my friend
One got caught but the onslaught continues using different tactics. They really are sad people!
Have a great,
Colin
April 16, 2008 at 9:47 pm
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