Amazon virus ?

[Deleted User]

Hope someone can help.

A couple of days ago I received an email - which I didn't open, but I could see it in the Outlook reading pane. It said that it was about my (unknown) Amazon order and there was an attachment, so I figured it was a virus and deleted it immediately.

HOWEVER, at the same time, my laptop hard drive whirred and then my laptop started behaving strangely - not responding/slowing down.

I shut the laptop down, then restarted, and then ran a full virus check (McAfee) and it picked up nothing. But now I still feel a bit nervous about what happened, particularly about accessing online banking.

Am I worrying for nothing? Or is it possible for a virus to be downloaded simply by looking at it in the reading pane? (sorry if this is a stupid question)

(PS I'm not a technie - you can probably tell ...!)

Oblivion

Corona wrote: »

A couple of days ago I received an email - which I didn't open, but I could see it in the Outlook reading pane.

Yes, but by then it's already downloaded on your computer isn't it. If it is a virus it could have already delivered the payload before you even got the chance to delete it.


This is the very reason I use Mailwasher Pro, an excellent piece of software that allows you to view all email whilst it's still on your service providers server. Anything remotely dodgy and I instruct MWP to delete it from the server so it never comes near my computer.

[Deleted User]

Oblivion wrote: »

Yes, but by then it's already downloaded on your computer isn't it. If it is a virus it could have already delivered the payload before you even got the chance to delete it.

And McAfee wouldn't pick it up during a scan ?

dogmaryxx

As long as the attachment was not opened you are safe.

http://askleo.com/can_i_really_catch_an_email_virus_just_by_looking/

Gyro

If you're still nervous then do a 'System Restore' to back BEFORE you got the email on your computer.

zax47

If it were me then I'd download the free version of Malwarebytes and do a scan with that (and I have...) to see what nasties lurk on your system anyway.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/lp/malware_lp_form/

baxie

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=492866

Also, try a virus scan whilst in safe mode, or run a virus scan from a bootable disk, thereby avoiding the infected computer.

Check out http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/live-cd-antivirus-scanners-windows-start/ - this shows how to download the software and how to create the "live" disk and how to update scan etc.