***WARNING*** Very nasty virus doing the rounds

Andrew1472

Lucero wrote: »

Opps, yes, indeed, should have been "told". No offence meant

Coincidence though, that the people involved are of the "older" persuasion and do get tricked in to these emails and phishing easily.

No problem.
Thanks for clearing it up.
One small typo can cause all sorts of trouble

andygb

Andrew1472 wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up, but is being old a requirement for getting tricked by this?
The implication is that, as my 60th birthday is only a few weeks away, I'm not capable of taking care of myself online. Of course the young don't click on things they shouldn't do they.
You need to think about that sentence and your attitude. It is offensive!

I am 53, and I do not find it at all offensive, because I am a realist. There are many people out there who are not computer literate, and unfortunately there are an awful lot of 70 and 80 year olds, using computers without any knowledge of what they should and should not do.
I also do not consider 60 as "old", because a 60 year old will have grown up using this technology in the workplace and at home, whereas a 70 or 80 year old may not.

texranger

simple thing to do , have your mail server block any emails with attachments, so no attachments will get through. most business do this as a matter or security anyway

HoofeHearted

Lucero wrote: »

Don't worry, the 3 people have all been old. What tricked them was that the email contained personal information which really couldn't have been known.

The first, listed an address (from which the addressee had recently moved from) which made him think it was genuine.

The last, had MSE and Avast on it. Avast remained completely silent even when the virus was in full swing. MSE offered to repair, highlighting the explicit issue, but couldn't. Running MBytes made things worse.

I'll be picking up the 3rd one today to examine it more closely.

That won't have helped.
TWO AVs running is a No No! (Or maybe Avast was installed but not running; hence it's silence!)

I_luv_cats

How would RM know your email??

I think my anti bull$hit radar would have seen this one off!!!

espresso

I_luv_cats wrote: »

How would RM know your email??

I think my anti bull$hit radar would have seen this one off!!!

This thread is obviously aimed at muppets!

Andrew1472

andygb wrote: »

I am 53, and I do not find it at all offensive, because I am a realist. There are many people out there who are not computer literate, and unfortunately there are an awful lot of 70 and 80 year olds, using computers without any knowledge of what they should and should not do.
I also do not consider 60 as "old", because a 60 year old will have grown up using this technology in the workplace and at home, whereas a 70 or 80 year old may not.

It just struck a nerve for some reason, not sure why. I probably overreacted.

I do tend to agree with you though as perverse as that might seem. I'm not sure how any novice, no matter what their age, is supposed to understand the implications of their actions, and of any warning messages. I know I didn't when I started 4 years ago.

It's only through this forum, and others like it, that I have come to understand somewhat how to properly protect myself. I suspect 99.9% of users are not interested enough to look for advice before something goes wrong.

At the moment I have 3 security related programs running, Sandboxie, MSE, and winpatrol, and 3 more available, Malwarebytes, Secunia psi and ccleaner. All of them to protect, or to clean up after, a browser. Maybe I have too much, but I feel safe. Despite that, this just seems silly to me.

Getting online needs simple plug and play devices for everyday use imho, like the Chromebooks. Whether they will be safe or practical remains to be seen, although nothing will protect a user if they fall for a phishing scam.

Sorry for dragging the thread off topic by the way.

pimento

There's an anti-virus called Money Saving Expert?

Trollburger

pimento wrote: »

There's an anti-virus called Money Saving Expert?

Yes, should any viruses invade your computer a giant Martin Lewis appears on the screen and squishes them underfoot :money:

pimento

Seriously, what does MSE stand for (apart from MoneySavingExpert)?