Been there, done that. See link below. HTH.

Terry

Here is a link that might be useful: new virus? supposedly very bad

This is one reason why I refuse to open any eCard from anyone. Yes, a few have got nasty with me, their choice entirely. My choice is to attempt to keep my computer clean. If they wish to say 'Hello' it can be done with a normal email.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snopes agrees

This attack is not new. The Hhallmark virus has in the wild for maybe up to two moths now.

I agrre by choice I do not open any on-line greeting cards regardless of whom they are from.

DA

I think those of you who refuse to open any e-cards are taking it too far. Yes, there are viruses sent this way, but if you take a few simple precautions, it's pretty easy to tell the real from the phony. If you look at the links in the Snopes article, although they claim to be Hallmark greeting cards, the domains are 123greetings.com and notme.hk.

In fact, the Snopes article includes this text: "NOTE: Readers should take particular care not to confuse the real postcard/greeting card virus with a number of virus-related hoaxes that have been circulating for several years."

It has also been around a lot longer than 2 months since some of the references in Snopes were from 2007.

To add an observation to what bpgreen said above. I always deleted 'generic' ecard emails -- the ones that say "a family member" or "a friend" sent you something. The only ones I open are those that specifically mention my friends' names as being the senders. Their names (or at least the names they used when signing up for the ecard account) are unique enough that it's highly unlikely that ecard spam would be able to guess it.

So, perhaps just mention to one's friends that, if they sign up for an ecard account, to use a unique name for the 'from' area, something that you would easily recognize as coming from that person when you get the link in the email. Perhaps they could go into their present accounts and change that information without signing up for another one. ??

Just a thought.

Don't the various anti-virus programs have email scans to help eliminate problems?

What any independent user wishes to do is of course wonderful for them, and I do wish them success and good luck.

What we have to remember is when we are posting, regardless of our position on the topic, we are providing information to all levels of computer/Internet experience. The experienced members know the dangers of unresearched ancillary smilie, screensaver, font and e-card sites. The newer members might not.

This basically goes hand in hand with the use of e-mail; both sending and receiving. This forum as well as others regularly sees questions and concerns directly related to the use of e-mail.

Remember folks we never thought of being fearful of a virus being contained in a attached picture with a .jpeg format. Now? It is another concern with unfortunately more to come.

DA