"Patch.exe"

[Leanne]

This is the second time that I've gotten an email (at
home) that says it's from MICROSOFT. My virus scanner
keeps flagging the attached executable ("patch.exe") as a
virus and quarantines it.

When I look at the email's source code, it says that the
IP address is 66.190.118.233. The ping times out.

Is anyone else getting this email?

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Leanne,

It is not from us.
It is a hoax. Microsoft never distributes software in e-mail and never
instructs customers to download files directly from an e-mail message.
E-mail from Microsoft will always direct you to a Web page where you can
download updates. If you receive a message purporting to be from Microsoft
that contains an executable file (for example a file ending in .exe, .com,
..bat, .scr, .js, .vbs, .cmd), delete the message immediately. Do not open
any attachments and do not download any executable files directly from the
e-mail message.

see

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/policy/swdist.asp


--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Alun Jones [MS MVP]]

Is anyone else getting this email?

Just about everyone else is getting that email. It's a virus, designed to
make your systems do something that the virus writer wants them to do (who
cares what it does, you don't want to run it!)

Microsoft doesn't send executable attachments. Because of the obvious ease
of forging email, they send links to Microsoft web-sites where you can
download patches. Your AV software is right to quarantine these emails.

Alun.
~~~~

[Please don't email posters, if a Usenet response is appropriate.]