AIM Virus - w32.allim

Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:34 pm

Thanks for the warning... as dumb as I am, I'd probably click on it straight away.

Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:39 pm

I got that from you. Clicked, saw it was a program and didn't download it. Good thing too... I just brought home this spiffy laptop I'm using.

Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:12 pm

I knew instantly it was a virus when someone who usually chatspeaks to me spoke to me in perfect grammar.

Sun Jun 19, 2005 9:39 pm

Ah, thanks for the warning. I blocked your screen name just to be safe. I would have been able to figure out that it was a program, but I'm not entirely sure how AIM functions with file sending/showing yet and one of the computers I reguarly use doesn't have an adequate virus scanner.

Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:31 pm

The one Yoshi mentioned goes something like, "Click here to see my pictures!", or something of the sort.
I've gotten both that one and the one Matt mentioned. Good thing I checked the URLs before clicking.
There is a website out there that is supposed to clean it up for you, but I don't know how reliable it is.

Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:35 pm

I've gotten those sort of IMs before, and I can always tell something's not right. Because even though I have lots of people on my buddy list, and I'm sure I'm on lots of people's lists too, I'm not into IMing, and everyone knows it. Out of everyone on my buddy list, there's only a small group that I ever IM, and these same people are the only ones that ever IM me. And IMs are only ever exchanged with good reason, never just for idle chatter. Thus, it's easy to recognize fake IMs.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:41 am

I got the .pif version, and I ran it because I thought it was something I could run in PSP, because my friend garrick (who sent it to me) always sends me .psp images.

Right away, I just deleted it off of processes, and it wasn't spread to anyone.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:59 am

Heh, someone from Europe who I've never seen in person but know online accidentally sent me that. So of course I'm like, "Hah.Hah.Hah."

Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:01 am

Taco wrote:I got the .pif version, and I ran it because I thought it was something I could run in PSP, because my friend garrick (who sent it to me) always sends me .psp images.

Right away, I just deleted it off of processes, and it wasn't spread to anyone.

It may have re-added itself, some viruses do that. Keep checking and run a good virus scan if you can.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:29 am

Bleh, I got that not too long ago. It was from a fairly good friend of mine, and when I asked her exactly what it was, she assured me it was hilarious and nothing bad would happen. Needless to say that I wasn't too happy when I discovered what it really was. Heh, I'd never gotten anything like this before, it definitely taught me a lesson.

Website · Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:58 pm

Thanks for the heads up. I personally always ask before receiving any files from anyone though, even if they did say beforehand, "check this out" or whatever. Once I did that and my friend replied, "Huh?" Immediately I knew that his messaging programme was infected by a virus.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:15 pm

I think something like this was going around on MSN a while ago. Glad I didn't get it though, sounds nasty.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:23 pm

Someone sent me that on MSN a hundred times.
But it just went to a cannot find server page.....

Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:33 pm

Bangel wrote:I knew instantly it was a virus when someone who usually chatspeaks to me spoke to me in perfect grammar.

*giggle* That's a good tipoff.

Matt, are you displaying filename extensions? If anyone isn't, change the setting. That way, you'll know exactly what you're downloading or running.

If memory serves me correctly, it's any folder>Tools>Folder Options>"View" tab>uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".