virus alert

Geoman

All,

I received 2 emails this morning that my virus detection software blocked. The subject was "coins." And the sender email address was "coins@collectorusa.com." There was no message, only an attachment. I believe they got my email address off my profile here. Please delete these messages immediately. And what ever you do, DO NOT open the attachment.

a2labmom

I try to make it a rule to not open any e-mail from anybody I do not know. Maybe a little paranoid, but so far I have not gotten any viruses or had any major problems.

sinin1

When I get a strange email with attachments - I return to sender and ask "what is this?" - without opening any of their attachments.

It is amazing that most of them get stopped and I get another email back saying something like "virus alert - email undeliverable"

Fairlaneman

coins @collectusa.com is out of Montana and a well know dealer. Probably they got infected some way from another place. I seriously doubt they are spreading a Virus intentionally. One of the guys here is associated with them.

coinguy1

They are good guys and I'm 100% certain they must have a virus they are unaware of. I just sent them an email to let them know. (I hope they don't reply, though, until they get it taken care of )

Dog97

Thanks for the heads up!
I've done biz with them-I think they're Williams Gallery or something like that so I should get some of their infected email too. In my email address that Outlook Express handles on top of that.

cacheman

Yeah, they're out of Bozeman, Montana. I doubt that it was intentional. CM

prooflike

Most of the time, it is the sender's address book that is utilized by the virus. This 'email list' utilized by the virus can sometimes be thwarted by making the first email address faulty.

ldhair

Can you get a virus if you just open the email and not the attachment?

prooflike

If you have all the outlook express fixes (windowsupdate.microsoft.com), typically no, you have to open the attachment. If you dont have all the fixes, there are viruses out there that utilize leaks in OE security holes.

Still, don;t open unfamiliar attachments.

Conder101

You can't be sure the virus was sent by coins@collectorusa.com or that you email address was picked up off of your profile. The Klez virus send copies of itself out to everyone in the infected persons address book and it selects one address at random from that list and places it in the From listing in the headers. So all you can really say is that someone out there who has both your address and coins@collectorusa.com in his address book is infected with a virus. I know because Superior Galleries has been getting Klez virus emails from coinorth@aol.com with MY name in the From listing. (I am also getting the virus emails from him with various different names in the From header. I know they are from coinorth because there is an Apparently From listing in the headers with his name on it on all of the virus emails I have received from him and on the bounced ones from Superiour.) I first tried dealing with Coinorth directly pointing out the problem. At first he was pleasant but the viruses kept coming, then he just either stopped answering or blocked my emails and I complained to AOL. The viruses have now stopped.

Dog97

If it was the Klez then collectors usa is clean then. My email is in my profile but I rarely get any mail from it being posted here. I use different emails for this board, Yahoo & eBay etc so I can get a good idea of where someone picked my address up from.