# virus alert Nasty one called hallmark



## dana (Jan 7, 2008)

recived this message from my family member in my email so i thought id post this in the forum.Dana
Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes and it is for real!!
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!
You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message
with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent
it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the
whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone
who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason
why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive
this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.
If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a
friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by
Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by
McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This
virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital
information is kept.
COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT
TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Dana,

Please read this from SNOPES.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

This one has been around a while in various forms.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

The "BIGGEST" and "MOST DESTRUCTIVE" virus/Trojan/malware in the whole wide world is any e-mail that ends with the statement to copy/forward the e-mail to all the people you know. 

I "NEVER" forward any e-mail that contains any sort of goad to get me to forward it. 

That attitude got me in trouble at work once when my boss sent me a message and asked me to forward it on to the rest of the group... I told him that the time it took him to type the request that I forward it took longer than it would for him to do a "CC" to everybody in the group in the first place. 

I have also been called "UnChristian" for not forwarding missives about some missionary in dire financial need; "Uncharitable" for not forwarding missives about a child in need of shoes; "UnAmerican" for not forwarding a missive about a soldier injured in combat and "Unfriendly" for not forwarding missives about computer viruses; but all of the people in my contact list received only 100 copies of those missives instead of 101. 

If you want me to forward an e-mail, send be something worth forwarding and DO NOT include any sort of goad to do so. 

Please forward this message to everybody you know, whether you love them or not, even if they do not have a computer or can even read; send it to all your living and/or dead friends, relatives, enemies, (or are those last two redundant?). Send it immediately and you, too, can bring down all the internet servers in the world with just a few mouse-clicks or keystrokes.


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## Great Western (Jan 2, 2008)

I am right with you there Charles. I often get e-ms. genuine ones, which suggest I forward on. Of course there is often a risk with some types of e-mail but by forwarding it also means you are expecting the recipient to share your views, humor, crusade or whatever: they may not.


Of interest I get the impression that many SPAM emails are done in the bosses time! How else do you explain that the few that get through my AOL's filtering system are always during the week and not at weekends. I rarely get a GMail or Yahoo SPAM e-mail.


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## John Huebner (Jan 2, 2008)

I receive the Trend Micro e-alerts, and have not gotten anything . The "Hallmark e-card" thing has been around ages....we saw it at work back in July. F-Secure has a world-activity map, and it shows the threat level as "Medium" currently. Here's a link to the F-Secure world map page showing activity and current glow-ball status: http://worldmap.f-secure.com/vwweb_1_2/en/previous_day


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## Al McEvoy (Jan 3, 2008)

It's a hoax. Try reading http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailhoaxes/p/postcard.htm

Probably the best thing you could do is read the entire Snopes article before inferring what it is truly claiming. 

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

If you do, you will find that the first posting in this thread is a verbatim copy right off the "hoax" versions of the warning - containing exaggerated claims (i.e., CNN did *not* claim this was the worst ever virus, etc.).

I encourage everyone who is interested to read the entire Snopes article before you panic and get friends and family panicked also. This virus is old news and any good Anitvirus program already has it in the database.

Hoilday Cheers
Al


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Any time such emails say, "It will destroy everything on your hard drive" or claims that Microsoft or AOL have called it "the worst ever" or some-such, that's usually a dead giveaway that the email is a hoax. Microsoft and AOL are not in the business of dealing with viruses, nor do they make it a practice to warn about them. 

Additionally, today's viruses/Trojans are, by and large, written for the purpose of stealing personal info (passwords, account numbers, etc.) , or compromising the host system to enable others to use it in Denial of Service Attacks, infected email forwarding, or for other malicious purposes. Wiping out the hard drive and thereby rendering the machine unusable with the virus/Trojan defeats these purposes


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## ShadsTrains (Dec 27, 2007)

If you get an email that says "forward this to everyone you know", please forget you know me.


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## Snoq Pass (Jan 2, 2008)

This is from Norton's website (in short, the virus does NOT exist):





*Discovered: *February 21, 2006
*Updated: *April 7, 2008 12:03:58 PM
*Also Known As: *Olympic Torch hoax [Sophos]
*Type: *Hoax




The Buring Hard Disc Hoax is being spread through email. It has been reported that the following text of the hoax may differ slightly in the various messages going around. The virus mentioned in the email does not exist. This hoax email includes the following warning: 

*Subject:* Invitation.
*Message:* (Variation 1)
You should be alert during the next days: 
Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" 
regardless of who sent it . 
It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. 
This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. 
This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept

*Message:* (Variation 2)
> > http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp 
Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! 
I checked Snopes (URL above







" src="http://www.mylargescale.com/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/smile.gif" align="absMiddle" border="0" />, and it is for real!! 
Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP; 
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled "POSTCARD," regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts.

If you receive a mail called" POSTCARD," even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Drive.

*Please ignore any messages regarding this hoax and do not pass on messages. Passing on messages about the hoax only serves to further propagate it.

*Here is the link if anyone wishes to confirm, 
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-022115-0852-99&tabid=2


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Not that I'm arguing about it being a hoax, but what is the Hallmark email then? I get it at least every other day and my virus detection goes nuts. The attachment they send also carries an 86.8KB attachment with it that is zipped shut, not your typical e-card. And just for the record, when Hallmark sends you an E-card, they tell you who it's from in the body of the email.


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## Snoq Pass (Jan 2, 2008)

Paint, are you sure that it is actually coming from Hallmark and not someone else acting like them? I have gotten a few that say they are from a company, but they actually aren't.


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