In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I make no claims to being an expert on such things, but I suspect all the posts by "evamelis" were generated by program working it's way through the forum's threads and posting the same message in each.
I have no idea how that might be done, but I'm sure it's possible.
For those who didn't see the messages before they were zapped, they each contained nothing but about 50 identical hyperlinks to a Turkish forum of some sort.
What I find more intriguing is the question of whether there ever was a real person who joined the forum as evamelis, or if "she" was always just a "bot".
I'm certain there's no cause for you to be concerned about your computer having "caught" something from visiting the forum, Violetta, although exercising caution and running an up-to-date anti-virus package are always a good idea.
Al
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Evamelis was probably just a person working from "home", earning a few cents per post - as is the usual method of getting spam onto message boards. It is cheaper than trying to circumvent the increasing levels levels of protection in the many different Bulletin Board programmes out there - and there are no shortage of youngsters thinking that they will earn their fortune by sitting up all night posting such garbage. I need hardly add that they are invariably disappointed in their dreams.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
A short warning on clicking on unknown links:
There is a particularly vicious virus/malware doing the rounds which can be caught merely by clicking on a link. One of our computers caught it despite having AVG antivirus updated daily, Spybot incl. Teatimer, Ad Aware and Spyware blaster running and all updates current.
It will kick up a message in the bottom right of your computer (in the area where XP warns of updates) to the effect that you computer is infected and you need to run XP Anti Virus 2008. Before this happens you may have noticed your computer rebooting by itself.
When the message pops up you know you are infected. This is a very difficult virus to get rid of and one of the few ways that works is to restore your system by means of the XP System Restore as soon as possible after the infection and then use Malwarebytes to scan for any infections left.
So the answer is: Beware of links!
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Following on from the above, then this link may help, plus the extra link to what replaced that version.
[url=http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5065]XP Antivirus 2008 - WorldStart Computer Tips and Computer Help[/url]
[url=http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5138]Antivirus 2009 - WorldStart Computer Tips and Computer Help[/url]
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Thanks very much for those links Geo.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Yes thanks Geo for the links. I noted the time of the first few postings, 04.20 something Italy Mag Forum time suggesting someone in the US or possibly a European insomniac? I've heard of daft things in my time but sitting up all night spamming must be the daftest.
By the way, talking about clicking on links, do all please be very careful. I thought I was but then got caught by one of these social networking places. A friend of mine opened a "be my friend" e mail from a former colleague at school now living in India, the link gobbled her entire e mail address book sending "be my friend" to everyone in it. I saw the message, stupidly opened it and it gobbled all mine up too! Don't worry, it was some months ago and I was swept clean immediately (and changed my e mail address) but what a nightmare, and all my friends were FURIOUS with me...
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Geotherm;100744]Following on from the above, then this link may help, plus the extra link to what replaced that version.
[URL="http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5065"]XP Antivirus 2008 - WorldStart Computer Tips and Computer Help[/URL]
[URL="http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/5138"]Antivirus 2009 - WorldStart Computer Tips and Computer Help[/URL][/quote]
Interesting development
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/technology/internet/30virus.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin[/url]
Late night/early morning spammer I think. I was up in the small hours - CQ worldwide radio contest- and watched it in action. Reported the first couple of posts but it was still busy posting when last I looked.