I ordered a part from Ed (ebmiller88). On or about May 6, I got an e-mail notification from paypal that USPS had been notified that a package was ready for pickup.

I kept checking the tracking number and nothing had happened with regard to mailing the package. So, I sent an e-mail off to Ed to inquire about the status. No response.

However, on May 14 I got an e-mail entitled "Delivery Status Notification" supposedly from the USPS. This e-mail said they attempted delivery on May 11, but nobody was home. That was a red flag. This e-mail also requested that I click "here" to print out a receipt that I could take to the post office. I did a really dumb thing and clicked on that. Needless to say, no receipt printed out.

So, I forwarded the Delivery Status Notification e-mail to Ed. Just a sort of "hey, Ed, look at what I got" kind of thing. No response.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally woke up and realized that the Delivery Status Notification was NOT from the USPS and I now have a virus on my computer. I've run virus protection, and restarted the computer several times.

Just so everybody knows, I am NOT blaming Ed (I still can't believe I fell for that). This is just a heads-up.

EDIT: The program is a "password stealer." "This program is dangerous and captures user passwords." Yikes.

 

If you sent Ed a copy of the email, you may want to let him know you were not trying to "spread the wealth", so to speak, and infect his system. Just an idea, really up to you.

That email is a common enough email. You may at some point start to see ones saying you are summoned to appear in court in various different cities around the country. They, like this one, are all BS spam trying to get your passwords to your credit card, bank, and/or PayPal accounts etc. After you are sure you have cleaned your system of the culprit, you may want to think about changing your passwords on your important accounts just as a safety measure.

BTW, you should change all improtant passwords every now and then. I would change them at as random an interval as possible, just to keep from having a predictable pattern. Oh, and never forward a suspect email. If it feels or smells weird, it most likely is.

You can report any email scams to The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) United States Computer Emergency Readyness Team (US-CERT) by following the directions on the link provided. http://www.us-cert.gov/report-phishing

And that's my PSA for the day

 

Yeah...... I fell for that USPS email last year, Right after I clicked the link it hit me. I never gave them my email and vendors/companies don't give it to any ship'n company either......

I fixed that virus real quick, With my 8lb sledge.....Then installed a new hard drive......

 

Ed has not replied to my e-mails, so I am hoping that this is a better way to let him know. When I forwarded that damn e-mail I had not yet figured out it was the nasty little bugger that it is.

If anybody knows Ed, let him know about the problem. It sounds like this virus has picked up his p/w.

Hard drive replacement seems to be the only fix for this virus. Damn!

 

No need to replace the harddrive. Worst case you could reinstall Windows. Just run a couple of the major brand name scanners and you may be fine. I have worked in IT since 1996 and I don't recall a virus that could not be removed from a working drive by software or a format and reinstall. Now, if the virus got to the drives firmware it could maybe damage it. I have never seen a virus do that to a harddrive firmware though.

 

I couldn't do anything with it at all, That's why it bit the dust.....

 

usually we are able to boot to safe mode, then run Malwarebytes or similar program, we have found Malwarebytes being ran in safe mode followed by NPE is extremely effective in removing virus' without needing to re-image the machine

not sure if you were able to boot to safe mode or not, some virus' can get pretty nasty,as mentioned before usually a drive wipe and re-image is the last resort but sometimes requires an external drive dock to wipe it first

That email hits our system here pretty hard sometimes, it becomes a nightmare

 

Ran forefront endpoint protection a half dozen times followed by malwarebytes several times. Ended up replacing the hard drive. This is one nasty little bugger!

From what I can tell, if a company has this virus it means that someone can access all email, including emails from customers. So, if a customer is expecting a response, like I was, they are much more likely to open a suspicious email.

 

[QUOTE=StealthESW;5764618]If you sent Ed a copy of the email, you may want to let him know you were not trying to "spread the wealth", so to speak, and infect his system. Just an idea, really up to you.

I am not sure how this virus works, but I think Ed's computer was infected before I forwarded that damn email.

 

[quote=Parrydise7;5765474]
That email wasn't from Ed nor the parcel service. I get them once in a while when I am not even expecting anything. Even when I am, I don't open any emails like that that isn't from the vendor I bought it from or Ebay.

 

[QUOTE=Joe Tag;5765478]Agreed. My guess is that the virus was already on Ed's computer and stole Ed's p/w, which means whoever sent me the email is reading Ed's emails. The email I got was not from Ed, but rather someone that is reading his emails. They saw the email I sent Ed about the USPS delivery and tailored the bogus email to fit the situation.

Damn clever!