Beware of the Facebook Virus
Oh yeah, I was stupid. How could such a helpdesk, assisting end-users in their computer/POS/printer/scanner issue be such a dumb and have his computer infected with a virus? Plus, I’m beginning to love Linux.
Here are the facts: I own the domain hcarigma.net since 2005. I have an email there herbert [at] hcarigma [dot] net. Recently, I added that email to my Facebook profile. The next day, when I checked my hcarigma.net email in my Windows XP PC, I received a couple of emails supposedly from Facebook. One included a zip attachment which, when extracted, has a supposed Excel file. My default view in the My Documents is Thumbnails, not details, so I didn’t notice that the Excel file is actually an application.
It will open a Pandora’s box once you launch the .exe file. First, I got a warning from Avast about the trojan virus. Next, offers for another antivirus and antimalware came up. I knew right there and then that it was a virus. I immediately disconnected my computer from the Internet.
From resources in the Net, the virus points from Netherlands and Kazakhstan. My computer didn’t detect any virus when it is offline, but once you connect to the Net, offers for antiviruses come up. No option other than a reformat. Resources: ItWorld and KDVR.
My computer is slowing down anyway, so I might as well reformat it.
It’s a lesson learned the hard way.
