Virus without opening attachement!

  • Thread starter Thread starter CK
  • Start date Start date
C

CK

Norton Security website is saying you can get a virus by viewing the
pre-view pane in your mail. AND I experienced this. So....it is my
understanding and experience that you can still get a virus from an e-mail
without opening the or a attachment IF you have your e-mail set up with the
pre-view pane. Now.... does the e-mail have to have an attachement for this
to be the case? Or no attachement necessary to catch the virus?

As reference on this, I read about the Swen virus on the Norton website. I
unfortunately got dooped by the bogus Microsoft security update scam. But
although I opened the attachment the first time around, I did not the
second. The second being that these e-mails are set up to continue for 3
days as failed delivery.

Please advise. CK
 
Why anyone would open an email attachment from an unknown source
is beyond common sense. One should only open an email attachment
received from a known individual and have a good reason for opening it.
(i.e. A Word or maybe an Excel document you were expecting).

Enable this setting:

1. Start Outlook Express.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Security tab, and check the "Do not allow
attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially
be a virus" check box under Virus Protection, and then click OK.

Also see:

How to Tell If a Microsoft Security-Related Message Is Genuine
http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/authenticate_mail.asp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Norton Security website is saying you can get a virus by viewing the
| pre-view pane in your mail. AND I experienced this. So....it is my
| understanding and experience that you can still get a virus from an e-mail
| without opening the or a attachment IF you have your e-mail set up with the
| pre-view pane. Now.... does the e-mail have to have an attachement for this
| to be the case? Or no attachement necessary to catch the virus?
|
| As reference on this, I read about the Swen virus on the Norton website. I
| unfortunately got dooped by the bogus Microsoft security update scam. But
| although I opened the attachment the first time around, I did not the
| second. The second being that these e-mails are set up to continue for 3
| days as failed delivery.
|
| Please advise. CK
|
|
 
-----Original Message-----
Norton Security website is saying you can get a virus by viewing the
pre-view pane in your mail. AND I experienced this. So....it is my
understanding and experience that you can still get a virus from an e-mail
without opening the or a attachment IF you have your e- mail set up with the
pre-view pane. Now.... does the e-mail have to have an attachement for this
to be the case? Or no attachement necessary to catch the virus?

As reference on this, I read about the Swen virus on the Norton website. I
unfortunately got dooped by the bogus Microsoft security update scam. But
although I opened the attachment the first time around, I did not the
second. The second being that these e-mails are set up to continue for 3
days as failed delivery.

Please advise. CK


.
Some viruses can be delivered by an html. page,yes
Click to expand...
attachments are the most common way but it is slowly
becoming outdated.
 
Carey, you might want to take a bit of time to think about replys before you
submit, especially as an MVP. I did not post on the site to be demeaned. I
realize the written word can be easily misinterrupted but this was pretty
blatent. Thank you otherwise for your additional advise.

Also as I said.....the e-mail said it was from Microsoft Update. It had a
Q******* no attached to it and all. It was a definite lesson but no common
sense??? \
 
Greetings --

If you receive an email formatted in HTML, and you use the preview
pane, the act of "previewing" the HTML message is the same as
opening/executing the file. As we all know, HTML files can contain
malicious code. If you like seeing HTML messages, turn-off the
preview pane and open only those messages that you trust. If you
prefer using the preview pane, and don't really care about the
eye-candy that accompanies many HTML messages, simply set OE to view
all messages as plain text. This way, no HTML file gets opened, so no
malicious code can run.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
You're pretty gullible. Or do you just click on things to see what's in
them? Why didn't you're antivirus pick it up?

--
Regards

Richard Urban
aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

*****************************
 
Well, I am not sure if gullible is where I was at but I know the timing
could not have been more prime. I had been like 30 days or more into the
"Cant Run Windows Update after re-installing WinXP" saga. Plus about a week
or two before that I had just converted to Direcway Satellite Internet going
through a Proxy. I was dealing with a whole slew of "crap". I was constantly
trying new suggestions, checking all the sites and newsgroups then retrying
and finding other errors.When this e-mail came in I thought oh yes maybe
Microsoft is sending the patch to make Windows Update work... finally. And
maybe it will fix some of the other problems too. I did not have my
anti-virus up yet since the re-install due to the file missing and so on and
so on..... So I guess it was pure desperation blocking my senses. But it
definitely UN-blocked my senses after that.

It was a lesson learned and still learning. That darn Swen virus is still
showing in my start up but no one is detecting it and I am trying to figure
out how to remove it and if it is anywhere else no one (software) is
detecting it. I am using Ad-Aware and Norton. Are you sorry you asked?
That is the long and short of it. CK
 
I remember when I did something like that 12 years ago. Back then, there
were no newsgroups to get assistance. That's really learning the hard way. I
got it from an infected floppy.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Well, I am not sure if gullible is where I was at but I know the
timing could not have been more prime. I had been like 30 days or
more into the "Cant Run Windows Update after re-installing WinXP"
saga. Plus about a week or two before that I had just converted to
Direcway Satellite Internet going through a Proxy. I was dealing with
a whole slew of "crap". I was constantly trying new suggestions,
checking all the sites and newsgroups then retrying and finding other
errors.When this e-mail came in I thought oh yes maybe Microsoft is
sending the patch to make Windows Update work... finally. And maybe
it will fix some of the other problems too.
Click to expand...

In the future. Just remember that no legitamate Company will send a
patch or update via e-mail unless you have specifically requested it as
part of a Tech Support call. At most, They might send an E-mail telling
you where you can download a patch/update from thier servers.



--

David

Programmers write "Help Files" for a reason. use them.

"Due to Viewer dicretion...
Graphic violence is advised"

http://www.HeroicStories.com/
http://www.thisistrue.com/
 
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