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  • 2007-06-30 (xsd:date)
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  • 'Hallmark Postcard from a Family Member' Virus (en)
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  • Examples: [Collected via e-mail, November 2012] [Collected via e-mail, April 2008] [Collected via e-mail, June 2007] Variations: Other subject lines used with this message include the following: Synopsis: Computer viruses have been distributed through e-postcard notifications in the past, but current warnings of such viruses are generally outdated or outright hoaxes. Origins: Many web sites offer a service that allows a user to send a customized greeting card (or postcard) to a relative, friend, or acquaintance, delivered as an e-mail message containing a hyperlink which the recipient follows to visit the originating site and view the card. Sending out phony e-card notifications is therefore an effective method of camouflaging viruses and inducing unwitting recipients into clicking on links that install malicious programs onto their computers. A wave of malicious messages (like the one reproduced above) sent out in June 2007 employed that very technique, arriving in inboxes bearing subject lines such as You've received a postcard from a family member! The messages contained URLs that recipients were supposed to visit to retrieve their e-cards, but those URLs actually pointed to servers hosting a variety of malware (including a variant of the Storm Trojan, an aggressive piece of malware that has been hijacking computers to serve as attacker bots since early 2007) that was furtively installed onto victims' PCs. (Generally, only unpatched Windows-based systems were vulnerable.) However, although the fake greeting card or postcard lure for delivering viruses may be used again in the future, warnings like the ones referenced above are several years old and no longer pose any threat to computer users who have relatively up-to-date anti-virus software. For the most part, messages currently forwarded by well-intended people to warn others about the Postcard virus merely contribute to confusion by including hoax elements within them, as well as links to our article about the Virtual Card for You hoax. Other versions of the postcard virus warning erroneously combine it with elements of the Invitation virus hoax: Although the Postcard virus was real at one time, it isn't now a BIG VIRUS COMING, it will not burn the whole hard disc of your computer, CNN didn't classify it as the worst virus ever, and it doesn't arrive in messages bearing a subject line of 'Invitation.' Since many of these types of malicious messages imitated notifications from legitimate e-card sites, cautious recipients might want to avoid clicking on links contained within e-card notification e-mails. Instead, go directly to the web site of the card company, find the card pickup page within that site, and enter the ID code included in the e-mail. (If the message was a fake, the worst that will happen is that you won't get a card.) Additional information: Postcard Virus Hoax (McAfee) (en)
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