for Mar. 17, 2004

Hi, All-

This week: A virus hoax, and why it and others like it are!

"I received this email from an email discussion group! Unfortunately, a virus has been passed to me through an address book virus which also infected my address book. Since you are in my address book, you will probably find it in your computer too. Norton or McAfee Antivirus does not detect the virus (called jdbg.exe). It sits quietly for 14 days before damaging the system. It is sent automatically by "messenger" and by address book, whether or not you sent email to your contacts. Basically, that means you will pass it along unknowingly, as I did. I was sent this email and am now passing it on to you as to how to check for the virus and how to get rid of it. Please do this. It's very simple to do and took me less than a minute to complete."

You can tell this is a hoax, and others like it, by a couple of points. First, the anti-virus companies seldom take more than a week to have a fix to any virus once it has been discovered. Next, most hoaxes like this always tell you to use the "find or search" utility to find and delete an "EXE" file. Usually, these files are in one of the Windows system folders, which usually means this "EXE" file is part of Windows and not a virus. If you do delete one of these "EXE" files, it could be detrimental to your Windows O/S. When a "virus alert" instructs you to look for a file and delete it, always confirm the virus with any of the anti-virus companies, as they all have web pages that have real and hoax viruses listed.

'Til next week, (ComputerFAQ#181)

Robert

 

Please send your questions to

Mar. 17, 2004 A Hoax Virus Can Cause You To Damage Your Computer

Mar. 10, 2004 Should I Reload Windows?

Mar. 3, 2004 HTML Email Viruses: Disable Preview and Receive Only Text Email

Feb. 25, 2004 Spoofing and Zombies

Feb. 18, 2004 Using Spyware

Feb. 11, 2004 Spyware

Feb. 4, 2004 Phishing and the MyDoom virus

Jan. 28, 2004 Microsoft Extends Support for Windows '98 and ME

Jan. 21, 2004 More Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 14, 2004 The Lifesaver "Undo" and Other Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 7, 2004 Microsoft quitting support for Windows 95 & 98 plus minimum computer requirements for Windows XP

Dec. 24, 2003 The Trouble with Mice

Dec. 17, 2003 System Restore & Windows Safe Mode

Dec. 10, 2003 Backing Up using an external USB Hard Drive

Dec. 3, 2003 SpamSubtract, a good way to reduce spam, also other ways

Nov. 26, 2003 Disgusted about Spam

Nov. 19, 2003 How Vulnerable is Your Computer to Data Theft?

Nov. 12, 2003 Safely Deleting Thousands of tmp Files

Nov. 5, 2003 Finding the Windows Search Button & Misc Program Problems

Oct. 29, 2003 How to Print a List of Files

Oct. 22, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 3

Oct. 15, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 2

Oct. 8, 2003 Fall Cleaning of Your PC

Oct. 1, 2003 Explanation of DSL

Sept. 24, 2003 Installing DSL at the Shopper

Sept. 17, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy? Part 2

Sept. 10, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy?

Sept. 3, 2003 Protecting from Viruses and Worms

Aug. 27, 2003 Current Viruses "Bast Worm" and "Sobig"

Aug. 20, 2003 Does Microsoft Password Make Changing Passwords Easier?

Aug. 13, 2003 Passwords and Passport Part 2

Aug. 6, 2003 More About PassPort and Passwords

July 23 & 30, 2003 Where Are Microsoft Passport Passwords Stored? and More About Passport and Passwords

July 16, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 2

July 9, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 1

July 2, 2003 Some More Icons Explained

June 25, 2003 Online Ordering

June 18, 2003 Followup on Refilled Ink Cartridges

 

July 05, 2000 Introduction to ComputerFAQ

July 12, 2000 Computer Definitions

July 26, 2000 More Computer Definitions

August 02, 2000 Defining Bits, Bytes and Hex

August 09, 2000 Internet Service Providers (ISP)

August 16, 2000 Backup up your PC

August 23, 2000 Backup Devices.

August 30, 2000 What is the slowest PC for Internet Access

September 06, 2000 PC Nomenclature

September 13, 2000What to do with Mail Attachements.

September 20, 2000What Happens at boot up

October 04, 2000Desktop Areas

October 18, 2000Start Button

October 25, 2000Display Made Bigger

November 01, 2000 More Monitor Controls

November 15, 2000 Right Click Display Menu

November 22, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

November 29, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

December 06, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 1

December 13, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 2

December 20, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 3