You might have some strange Swedish email

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At least some of us got an email message -- all in Swedish -- from Anna Holmqvist. I'm pretty sure the message is the result of something called the "bugbear" virus. Here is a bit of info about the virus...

The worm can pick up old e-mail messages from an infected system and send them to random e-mail addresses. In addition, the worm gathers e-mail addresses from the infected computer's hard drive and uses them to forge the sender (the "From:" line) of the e-mail. So, the recipients of email with Bugbear-infected attachments seem to get it from someone who was not the actual sender (and is not the real Bugbear victim).

Annoying thing on Bugbear is that it tries defame the good name and reputation of the apparent sender, who actually isn't involved. In many cases the apparent sender is accused of spreading a virus around, which makes him waste hours looking for a virus which has never been on his computer in the first place.

I think what might have happened is the virus somehow started picking up the addresses of OKers. I know a bunch of us got the same message. I also know the Bay Area O.C. got a message Mary wrote years ago (that she sent to Sanna a couple of years ago).

Anyways...I guess what you should know is that if you get a strange email from Anna Holmqvist -- it isn't really to you. If it has an attachment, don't open it.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), January 07, 2003

Answers

For more info about the virus, take a look at:

http://www.f-secure.com/bugbear/

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-960365.html?tag=fd_top

And if you're worried about checking your PC, you can use something called McAfee stinger at: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/



-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), January 07, 2003.


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