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Subscribers are sending me a virus?

by skyisblue
10 replies
hi my subscribers are replying to my messages by sending me an attached file...theres no content on the body of the email...just an attached file...
should I open it? or is a virus?

Also btw some are replying me saying something in chinese and some in another language which I dont know....its a different alphabet...
#attached #file #sending #subscribers #virus
  • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
    Originally Posted by skyisblue View Post

    hi my subscribers are replying to my messages by sending me an attached file...theres no content on the body of the email...just an attached file...
    should I open it? or is a virus?

    Also btw some are replying me saying something in chinese and some in another language which I dont know....its a different alphabet...

    never ever open an attachment in an email that you're not expecting - and always have an updated anti-virus program running
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    • Profile picture of the author Dustin Lyle
      Yeah, thats shady tree business... Never forget who wears the email sending pants in this relationship :p
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by skyisblue View Post

        hi my subscribers are replying to my messages by sending me an attached file...theres no content on the body of the email...just an attached file...
        should I open it? or is a virus?

        Also btw some are replying me saying something in chinese and some in another language which I dont know....its a different alphabet...
        The other alphabet is probably Cyrillic - used in Russian and other similar languages. Do NOT open the attached file. Rather than a virus, it's probably a Trojan or worm looking to make your PC the latest member of a botnet.
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    This happens to me all the time and I just simply delete the email.
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  • Profile picture of the author napoleonfirst
    It seems like a virus, and I think you should not open these files.
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  • Profile picture of the author sonas
    Yeah take it as a given that your going to get this sort of thing coming back to you, never open the attachments and just delete the message straight away.
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  • Profile picture of the author HKSEO Jonbones
    I'm not sure at what point it became ok to open attachments from people you don't know, I always thought that was common knowledge not to open them.
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    • Profile picture of the author brentb
      Where did you get these subscribers? If from paid advertising you may want to check the source, targeting etc.

      People who have especially large email lists ie like 50k+ compiled from various sources of traffic ie PPC here, display there, social media, affiliates etc etc... when you send an email out, you get a ton of email back, mostly its vacation responders set to send you a salespitch and affiliate link or in this case a virus file.

      What is probably happening is someone used a bot to create 100,000 fake gmail, yahoo hotmail etc emails. Then they set the vacation responder to their file or ad. Then they use bots to type these emails into forms all over the web. Or if they really don't value their time they type them in themselves.

      If your list is small and you are only getting this from a few people, they may be legit and just have an infected computer. With really big lists, I often remove people who vacation reply more than once in a row.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by brentb View Post

        What is probably happening is someone used a bot to create 100,000 fake gmail, yahoo hotmail etc emails. Then they set the vacation responder to their file or ad. Then they use bots to type these emails into forms all over the web. Or if they really don't value their time they type them in themselves.

        If your list is small and you are only getting this from a few people, they may be legit and just have an infected computer. With really big lists, I often remove people who vacation reply more than once in a row.
        Actually, the infected computer is the most likely explanation. The infection waits for a period of inactivity, runs in an out of the way corner of the system, and sends copies of itself to everyone on the infected computer's contact list and/or email account. All they need to do is read the reply-to address from one of the OP's emails.

        When the owner of the bot net has spam to send, it goes out using the infected computers in the botnet.

        Very nasty stuff.

        Again, DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS UNLESS YOU EXPECT THEM!
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  • Profile picture of the author owenlee
    if you are not sure, then dont open it
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