IMPORTANT!!! BEWARE OF EMAILS BEARING GIFTS!
Firstly - I apologize for the long lag between posts. I find real life gets in the way of other things sometimes! Which is why I am writing this thread at 3AM. (That, and I woke up wide awake 10 minutes ago for some reason.)
I got an email yesterday from "Antivirus 2009". The subject is "Antivirus for Windows Update." It purports to come from the people who give us AVG software, a pretty fair Internet and PC security software company.
In two words, "it ain't".
I post the message below exactly as it came, except the links are not active here:
________________________________________________________________________________
Keep your Antivirus up to date!
Learn how to use the most trusted Anti-Virus program in the world.
Remove Viruses Automatically and protect yourself from emerging threats.
Download AVG Protection Here
Also receive Registry Repair, Firewall Protection absolutely Free.
Mathew Marshall
Antivirus News
If you want to stop receiving mail, please go to:
http://products—daily—news.org/
or you may contact us at the following address:
Plaza Neptuno, local #7
Via ricardo J Alfaro, Tumba Muerto
Panama Ciudad
Republica de Panama
________________________________________________________________________________
Learn how to use the most trusted Anti-Virus program in the world.
Remove Viruses Automatically and protect yourself from emerging threats.
Download AVG Protection Here
Also receive Registry Repair, Firewall Protection absolutely Free.
Mathew Marshall
Antivirus News
If you want to stop receiving mail, please go to:
http://products—daily—news.org/
or you may contact us at the following address:
Plaza Neptuno, local #7
Via ricardo J Alfaro, Tumba Muerto
Panama Ciudad
Republica de Panama
________________________________________________________________________________
This is a perfect example of phishing - an email that is trying to lure people to download VERY BAD software onto their Windows PCs.
I have posted about this type of thing before here (you CAN click this link). This email provides examples of what I said in that post. Here's how you can tell that this email is dangerous:
- If you do your research, you will find that there IS NO VALID PRODUCT called "Antivirus 2009". As a matter of fact, if you Google just those two words (as I just did), you will find approximately (not exactly, mind you) 9.9 MILLION results for your perusal in your copious free time. Most of those results have the words "How to remove Antivirus 2009" in their title. That should be a really big clue! However, in case it doesn't occur to you to Google those words, there are other clues.
- You probably never subscribed to some product called Antivirus 2009, although it sounds reasonable that you did. If you aren't 100% sure, THAT'S a clue. Mostly likely, the product you have is more than just antivirus software. I certainly HOPE so, since, if that is all you have, your PC is wide open for any other piece of malware out there, and there are plenty of those. What you SHOULD be running is an Internet security package (which includes antivirus software), and it should have a company name attached to it (e.g., Norton Internet Security 2009, or ESET Smart Security V.4.0).
- A more subtle clue is the sporadic use of capital letters and lack of other types of highlighting, as well as subtle misspellings. For example, in the second sentence, while the words "the most trusted Anti-Virus program in the world" appear to be highlighted, they are actually a link. More on that below. However, "Anti-Virus" is a misspelling, and any major corporation knows this. You may not, BUT, their "product name" is "Antivirus 2009" and their subject uses the word "Antivirus", both of which are spelled correctly. So they give you the clue right there. Additionally, words you and I might highlight in sentences, such as "most trusted", are minimized while words that aren't as important in the very next sentence are highlighted by the use of capital letters.
- The fifth sentence has a comma instead of the word "and". ALWAYS be on the lookout for incorrect use of grammar, punctuation, and sentence construction. Those are a HUGE flag for invalid emails. People who don't live in the US and whose native language is not English make these types of mistakes all the time, and the vast majority of phishing emails come from Russia, South America, and nations linked to terrorism.
- Probably the largest clue is the address at the bottom of the email. If I were phishing, I would research the location of the corporation I wanted you to believe I work for. From the "Who We Are" page on the AVG Technologies (formerly Grisoft) website, their exact words are "with corporate offices in Europe, the US and the UK". Hmm. Could be a clue. Besides, I don't think Panama houses too many internationally-known software houses.
- Lastly, and the biggest clue of all, is that when you place your cursor on any of the links WITHOUT CLICKING the link, at the bottom of your window you will see the words "http://products—daily—news.org/". The words "Grisoft" or "AVG" or "AVG Technologies" appear nowhere in the links. If you receive an email with links that purport to take you to a web site, CHECK THOSE LINKS by placing your cursor (WITHOUT CLICKING) on the link and look at the target of the link in the bottom of the window. If the site it will take you to does not have the name of the company or the product as the words just before the domain type (e.g., .com, .org, .gov, .edu, etc.), IT IS NOT A VALID LINK to the product or company the email says it's from. Valid emails will say something like "Visit our site at AVG.com for more information or to subscribe". There will be no link to click.
There are several more clues in this particular message, but I think you get my point.
Always carefully check any email trying to sell you something, even if (and ESPECIALLY if) the "something" is free!
Antivirus 2009 is a bad piece of malware, and the email in many ways is clever. The average Joe or Josephine who is not informed or is not thinking at the moment about the validity of such emails, will click one of those links and get his/her Windows PCs infected.
You don't want to pay me to fix the problem. And I don't want to make my living that way.
Be careful out there!



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