Strange Emails/Possible Virus?

Discussion in 'Malware Help - MG (A Specialist Will Reply)' started by Delwyn, Aug 10, 2006.

  1. Delwyn

    Delwyn Private E-2

    Hi There,

    I've spent a fair bit of time surfing the web and various resources in hopes of finding someone who's had a similar experience or problem.
    In the last couple of weeks I started receiving emails from a 'girl' apparently located in Russia wanting to exchange emails. I ignored the first one, but subsequent ones did follow, specifically to my address, all stating or implying I responded. I tried blocking and blacklisting the address, but it appears to change every so often. Only one attachment was ever sent and it was blocked (although no virus was detected).
    It's a bit disconcerting to see my name (or at least the one used for that email) in the body of the email itself, although I realize it is not a complicated feat to accomplish. I suspect this is some sort of bot or virus rather than a real person, but am unsure how to approach it at this point.
    The only other results on the web I managed to come up with were copies of the letters sent to me posted on various blogs or personal webpages.

    More than anything else I am wondering if anyone has heard of this before, or might have some suggestions as to how to resolve this.

    The sender is Karina and is sends from:
    zuwckr@ateliermb.com
    officeman04@moscowlights.com
    Karina1976XI@list.ru

    Thanks,

    Del

    P.S. I don't know if this will help or not, but if anything these letters give me the impression of being akin to an internet wife-finding stint. The odd thing is that I am a married woman who has never gone near that crap.
     
    Delwyn, Aug 10, 2006
    #1
  2. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Welcome to Majorgeeks!

    You have just been unlucky enough to get yourself on some spammer's email list. They are fishing for answers to email. If you answer, they know they have a valid email address and you will then get added to more spam lists. Thus ignore them or see if you can get a better spam filter. Spammer constantly come up with new ways to defeat the filters so in many cases it is best to just ignore them and hope for the best. You need to be careful where you are using your email address. For online stuff, it is sometimes better to have an email account somewhere that you do not use for everyday purposes. That way when you buy online or subscribe to some site, you can use a valid email addresss but just not one you care about. You would only check it when you know you expect something valid to be coming there and you would just delete anything except what you expect.


    So in short, I don't think you are having malware issues. You are just getting spammed.
     
    chaslang, Aug 11, 2006
    #2
  3. Delwyn

    Delwyn Private E-2

    Thanks for the response.

    My only concern (and it is starting to grow a little) is that I've seen tester emails in the past and these are not at all similar. They come from the same source and act much like a progressing story, to the point where, now my name is being used in the body of the email. (Easy coding to create this I know, but still makes my alarm bells go off).

    What's the main problem is that no matter how much I blacklist this particular address, it keeps coming through. I have blacklisted (our server then automaticall rejects the email), filtered to trash, etc. this particular email address at least a half dozen times, but to no avail.
    And it's not like it's a different address each time, I've checked and it is the identical one each time.
    This one has me stumped.... any thoughts?

    Thanks Del.

    P.S. As for the address these annoying emails are going to, it is an address that I do not give out, or use for anything public on the web so prior to this I had not had any problems with spam.
     
    Delwyn, Aug 23, 2006
    #3
  4. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    The truth be told is that spam filters just do not work properly and they are too easy to get around. I work for a big company and in the last two weeks spam mail has increase more the 50 fold. And we have all kinds of front end filtering going on and I have back end filtering to. It just can't keep up with the random way the spammers work. The can also spoof their IP addresses to make it easier to sneak by your filters.


    It only takes once! If some one that does have your email address (and there must be some or you would not have it) ever put it in a mail that went multiple places, you could easily have gotten on a spam list.

    There is not much we can do for you about spam! We can check your PC for malware if you want but spam is not something we can fix for you.
     
    chaslang, Aug 23, 2006
    #4

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds