IMPORTANT! Have you received an email to your forum username?

buzzyy

cheers for that,i panic over the slightest things,xxx

Starapple

I too received this email 17.11.10 & I'm an infrequent visitor to the site but, receive the weekly email. I did open the email before realising it was not from MSE. However my anti - virus also neutralised a worm that same day. So I am hoping this is the worst of it. I donot recall if I open link. Will now have to get help to do further checks and ensure my privacy is not at risk.

I only use this username for MSE & it was the 1st forum I joined.

The_Gerbil

Ed_Jogg wrote: »

I tried doing this for a while, and still get emails addressed to [EMAIL="bandq20nov09@domainname.com"]bandq20nov09@domainname.com[/EMAIL], but it caused so much hassle managing the legitimate emails that I gave up. I now use one address for internet shopping, one for banks etc, one for forums...

I think everyone who owns their own domain goes through the same phases.

I thought having separate email addresses for everything was a good idea but then you end up getting spam at most of them.

I then went for bigger groups like you have done.

I few months later you realise this is pointless as well.

My latest plan is just to have one email address and setup filtering in Thunderbird.

I'll probably give up on this eventually.

I wonder what I'll try next. Whitelists?

I wish someone would come up with a final solution for spam.

nilrem_2

Starapple wrote: »

I too received this email 17.11.10 & I'm an infrequent visitor to the site but, receive the weekly email. I did open the email before realising it was not from MSE. However my anti - virus also neutralised a worm that same day. So I am hoping this is the worst of it. I donot recall if I open link. Will now have to get help to do further checks and ensure my privacy is not at risk.

I only use this username for MSE & it was the 1st forum I joined.

Starapple, you are unlikely to get a virus or trojan by simply viewing the email, you would have to actually run the exe file to do that.

It's always a good idea to have anti-spy-ware on your PC and use it, For example Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html and Anti-malware http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html are both good choices.

Don't let this put you off joining forums there are some very worthwhile ones and this sort of incident is quite rare TBH.

joe134

I got my dodgy e-mail via g-mail which I have never used or registered on this site.I always use aol address, which mse e-mails weekly .so where did they get it?

VeeW

Hi I got one of these emails too and believing it to be real opened it. I'm pretty sure I clicked on the link too! I have been getting pop up boxes asking if I want only secure info the past few days when I try to access anything at all does this mean I'm ok & that my anti-virus has done it's job? Or am I in trouble? What should I do to make sure I'm ok? I'm not, as you can probably gather, too hot on this kind of thing!!

portlandboy

If you're worried, you ought to run a full scan through your anti-virus programme. This might take some time to complete so it's best to just leave it alone to work it's way through the computer but if the AV is good it should throw up any problems.

joe134

VeeW wrote: »

Hi I got one of these emails too and believing it to be real opened it. I'm pretty sure I clicked on the link too! I have been getting pop up boxes asking if I want only secure info the past few days when I try to access anything at all does this mean I'm ok & that my anti-virus has done it's job? Or am I in trouble? What should I do to make sure I'm ok? I'm not, as you can probably gather, too hot on this kind of thing!!

Hi, if the "pop up" is a blue dialogue box, you should be fine.I get that regular on secure sites, ie, banks etc.run "malwarebytes" also.Don,t just rely on your av

StumpyPumpy

joe134 wrote: »

VeeW wrote: »

Hi I got one of these emails too and believing it to be real opened it. I'm pretty sure I clicked on the link too! I have been getting pop up boxes asking if I want only secure info the past few days when I try to access anything at all does this mean I'm ok & that my anti-virus has done it's job? Or am I in trouble? What should I do to make sure I'm ok? I'm not, as you can probably gather, too hot on this kind of thing!!

Hi, if the "pop up" is a blue dialogue box, you should be fine.I get that regular on secure sites, ie, banks etc.run "malwarebytes" also.Don,t just rely on your av

Whilst Malwarebytes is generally very good, when I tested with the latest version (on 21/11/10) it did not detect and clean up this specific infection. I was surprised it didn't, but it didn't.
I don't think it is a good idea to recommend it in these circumstances, unless you have evidence that it has now started working here. The same goes with several anti-virus packages I tested: all detected the bad link in the email, none could either detect or clean an infected machine. Of course, make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date and running properly, but don't expect much help from it if your machine has become infected.
In my research, I found Hitmanpro to be the most consistent performer for detection and removal, with the easiest interface for novices to use. It is free, quick and easy. I don't recommend it for anything other than this specific issue. Not necessarily because I don't like it, but because I have not tested it for any other issue.
In all likelihood if Hitmanpro does not detect this infection, you do not have it (I will never say 100% certain, life is not like that) Easy steps to download and using it are in my previous post to this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=38683690&postcount=822

SP

joe134

nilrem wrote: »

Don't know if it makes any difference regarding the malicious email that this thread is about but I have just noticed that I use 2 different email addresses with MSE, the one that I use in connection with the forum which is the one I received the email on and the other which I use to receive the weekly MSE email which did not seem to receive any malicious email.

(Doubt this info is any use to MSE but posted it just in case.)

The entirely opposite to me, so if they hacked into old forum users like me et.al, how have they got my g-mail address which I hardly ever use, only had it for 1899 years ago.My g-mail must be logged by MSE somewhere other than forum users.Notified webmaster today