Newsletters From I-SupportDesk.com
There are better ways of handling your Computer problems – Call i-SupportDesk.com
February 7th, 2008
NOTE: THERE ARE MANY OF THESE VIRUSES GOING AROUND IN CHAT –
ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY AWARE OF WHAT YOU CLICK & DOWNLOAD
NO MATTER WHOM IT IS FROM!!! READ ON
From The Desk Of i-SupportDesk.com – Your Personal Computer Expert
To clarify, anything that ends in .com on your computer (or .bat, .exe, etc.) is “executable” meaning that is contains code (instructions) that your computer WILL FOLLOW. If those instructions are bad, and do nasty things to your computer, and then make an attempt to spread to other computers…that is called a virus (mostly because it spreads like a disease and does harm).
If it ends in those extensions, and it does NOT do bad things to your PC…then we call it a “program”. 
And you use those everyday on your computer to do things like surf the web, chat, send email, etc. They mostly end in .EXE, like “iexplore.exe” which is the program name for Internet Explorer.
And you use those everyday on your computer to do things like surf the web, chat, send email, etc. They mostly end in .EXE, like “iexplore.exe” which is the program name for Internet Explorer.So the danger comes in clicking on, and opening, files that you don’t know are good or bad.
You should be careful and not just click on stuff because your friend is the one who sent it to you. In this case, the chat message is not being sent by your friend, it’s being sent by the virus using your friends chat program. So it looks like it’s from your friend, but it’s actually a link to the virus so you can infect your computer, too.
And this is where it gets tricky.
Pictures end in .JPG .GIF .PNG, etc. This link downloads a progam with the name like ”PIC005.JPG — www.funpic.com” so it looks like it’s a JPG picture file…but the filename is actually “PIC005.JPG — www.funpic” and the extension is .COM
The one that went around this week said “Is this picture really you?” with a link to click – when clicked brought up a download.
NOTE: Even if you DID NOT say to download it, because you CLICKED IT – it IS on your computer now and can be executed!!!!
Sneaky huh?
We are one of the first to find this variant on this virus and wanted to get the word out so you can be on the watch and make sure you knew you have help. Let’s be safe out there!
So just keep your wits about you, and be careful what you click on.
One of the best ways to avoid a trap like this is to ask the person who sent it to you (your friend, we never accept pictures or files from strangers!!!) what it is they sent…BEFORE you open it or click on it. If they answer back that they didn’t send you anything, or something like that, then obviously that’s a red flag.
This goes for email as well as chat. Just because an email looks like it’s from someone you know doesn’t mean it is. Just like a regular letter sent through the post office, the sender can put any return address on the envelope they want to…and you might think it is from someone you know until you open it and find out otherwise. So be very careful with email, too!
If there is a file attached to an email, or sent through chat, or a link that downloads something…you should verify that it has really been sent by your friend, and then even at that point, you should SAVE it to your desktop and SCAN IT with an anti-virus program before opening it. Because sometimes even though your friend sends you a file on purpose, your friend might not realize that it is an infected file, too…so you can protect yourself this way too.
Because things like this are so rampant, and because in this day and age EVERYONE is so ‘connected’ and we literally use our computers for almost everything we do, there will always be these kinds of ‘bad guys’ on the internet looking for new ways to exploit you and your computer.
If you feel you have been ‘infected’ and you do not know how to clean your computer, make sure you get an EXPERT to do it for you. These are not games and they are very complicated to find and remove completely. So this is not a job for just anyone. If you need help, you can find someone or a company that works specivially with computer issues such as this and your privacy and computers health.
If we can be of any service to you please feel free to contact us anytime. We would be happy to help you. For all the cool stuff being introduced out there for us to enjoy and use, just as many ways to take advantage and hurt you are being created by the criminals online.
Please make sure you send this to your friends, especially the ones that are sharing chat viruses with you. Oh, by they way, its not just on MSN that this is happening, Yahoo, AOL, and others are being infected too – don’t risk it – find out if YOU have one, are passing one on, or are no longer safe because of these malwares.
Have a SAFE day!
