HallMark Virus

DO NOT OPEN ANY CHRISTMAS CARDS FROM ECARDS@HALLMARK.COM!!!!

There is an e-card virus making the rounds and it is being disguised as a Hallmark greeting card.

The phony e-card will come to your inbox as an email from ecards@hallmark.com It says you have received a Hallmark greeting card from a friend, to view it click the attachment, which is named postcard.zip or sometimes postcard.exe.

Hallmark doesn't have any e-cards that they make you download. If you do click on the link in the bogus e-mail, you will launch a variant of the Zapchast Trojan virus. Zapchast installs an Internet Relay (IRC) chat client and causes the infected computer to connect to an IRC channel. Attackers then use that connection to remotely command your machine.

If you receive an authentic e-card from Hallmark, there will be a confirmation number on the e-card. You can then go to the Hallmark website and type in that information. You are NOT required to download anything! You will view your card ON the Hallmark website.

Warning Website Spammers

If any of you (which is actually unlikely) receive an email from rowena@rowenacherry.com or indeed from anyone at rowenacherry.com

DO NOT OPEN IT.

It was not from me. My webmaster shut down my site pretty promptly, so I have no idea if I am hawking viagra or sending the worst worm ever to my friends, acquaintances, and total strangers.

I only write once a month to my newsletter group from rowenacherry.com and this is not the time.

Authors... these spammers go through registered domain names, and also through the internet dictionary. At some point, it is highly likely that your firstname@authorname.com identity will be used to send Viagra spam and Trojans to all the world.

Anyone know how to get a fast headsup? These hackers send hundreds of emails per second.

Rowena Cherry