Virus "link" in e-mail?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sanjaya
  • Start date Start date
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Sanjaya

A the son of a friend of mine had his computer majorly screwed with when
he clicked a seemingly innocuous link in a spoofed email.

Holding the cursor over the email link shows this is the status bar
javascript:dl('http://www.***search.net/test');

I have substituted asterisks for 3 letters in the fake link.
The email shows what appears to be a real link to
http://www.***search.net/test
but a right click/"copy link" gives the result showing javascript
(that is a paste of what actually copied)

I don't know how to explain it to them properly.
Any suggestions?

The missing letters are a 3 letter word for feline if anyone's interested.
 
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A the son of a friend of mine had his computer majorly screwed with when
he clicked a seemingly innocuous link in a spoofed email.

Holding the cursor over the email link shows this is the status bar
javascript:dl('http://www.***search.net/test');

I have substituted asterisks for 3 letters in the fake link.
The email shows what appears to be a real link to
http://www.***search.net/test
but a right click/"copy link" gives the result showing javascript
(that is a paste of what actually copied)

I don't know how to explain it to them properly.
Any suggestions?

The missing letters are a 3 letter word for feline if anyone's interested.
Click to expand...

Well looking at a Google search of the web address it rings some alarm
bells; "adult" sites often serve up viruses, spyware or computer exploits.

What has probably happened is that their email client was told to download
a malicious program from a web site at the above address. It may have
required a user to click on the link or could have had code inside the
email which triggered it.

They should use a more secure email program (Thunderbird has a good track
record so far), should *never* read email in HTML mode and absolutely must
keep their operating system up-to-date with the latest security updates.

HTH

Adam Piggott, Proprietor, Proactive Services (Computing).
http://www.proactiveservices.co.uk/

Please replace dot invalid with dot uk to email me.
Apply personally for PGP public key.
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Adam Piggott said:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Well looking at a Google search of the web address it rings some alarm
bells; "adult" sites often serve up viruses, spyware or computer exploits.

What has probably happened is that their email client was told to download
a malicious program from a web site at the above address. It may have
required a user to click on the link or could have had code inside the
email which triggered it.

They should use a more secure email program (Thunderbird has a good track
record so far), should *never* read email in HTML mode and absolutely must
keep their operating system up-to-date with the latest security updates.
Click to expand...


Thanks.
 
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