My neice needs help

[Jerry Kutcher]

My niece opened the infamous "M/S e mail Security Notice
She writes, "After I opened this email, a "warning box" popped up on my screen telling me I had an internal error in "module mapi32.dll" It said that I could not use me email until I fill in the information in this box. My email address, my name and the outgoing server name(SMTP) and incoming server name (POP3). "

What do you recommend she does, besides never opening another email from M/S Security
Many thanks,
Jerry Kutcher

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

My niece opened the infamous "M/S e mail Security Notice
She writes, "After I opened this email, a "warning box" popped up on my
screen telling me I had an internal error in "module mapi32.dll"  It said
that I could not use me email until I fill in the information in this box.  My
email address, my name and the outgoing server name(SMTP) and
incoming server name (POP3). "
 
What do you recommend she does, besides never opening another
email from M/S Security

Never open =anything= with an un-expected attachment, even if it claims
to come from the Pope, and is countersigned by St Peter. If she filled
in the info, then the worm on her PC is now happily spamming little
copies of itself to everyone on the planet, and she needs to visit her
favourite AV supplier and get the 'SWEN.A' removal tool (a quick canter
through this NG will reveal copious pointers to same). Of course if she
got infected, she may not have adequate Anti-Virus installed, so she
better do that at the same time she removes SWEN (who knows what-all
else she is infected with .. virus these days usually do much more
subtle things than trash your hard drive).

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

What you received is either a very common malicious hoax or the
output of a computer infected by one of several wide-spread, mass
emailing worms. The most widely-known are:

W32.Swen.A_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

W32.Dumaru_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

W32.Gibe_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

Microsoft never has, does not currently, and never will email
unsolicited security patches. At the most, if, and only if, you
subscribe to their security notification newsletter, they will send
you an email informing you that a new patch is available for
downloading.

Microsoft Policies on Software Distribution
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/policy/swdist.asp

Information on Bogus Microsoft Security Bulletin Emails
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/news/patch_hoax.asp

Any and all legitimate patches and updates are readily available
at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/. (Notice that this is the true
URL, rather than the bogus one that may have been contained in the
email you received.) Any messages that point to any other source(s) or
claim to have the patch attached are bogus.

You're receiving these emails because your email address is in
the address book of someone infected with a worm, and/or because you
posted your real email address somewhere on-line, either in a forum
accessible to the public and spambots, such as Usenet, or on an
untrustworthy web site that subsequently sold your address as part of
a mailing list. One thing you can do is notify _everyone_ with whom
you've ever corresponded via email that one or more of them may be
infected with a mass emailing worm, and should take the appropriate
steps.

There's probably no way of blocking all of the bogus messages, but
you can greatly reduce the number you get by creating a rule, based
upon the most commonly used subject lines, to delete the emails from
the server without ever downloading them.

W32.Swen.A_mm Removal Tool
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]

McAfee AVERT Stinger
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=stinger


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


My niece opened the infamous "M/S e mail Security Notice
She writes, "After I opened this email, a "warning box" popped up on
my screen telling me I had an internal error in "module mapi32.dll"
It said that I could not use me email until I fill in the information
in this box. My email address, my name and the outgoing server
name(SMTP) and incoming server name (POP3). "

What do you recommend she does, besides never opening another email
from M/S Security
Many thanks,
Jerry Kutcher