Computer viruses have become far more insidious in recent months! My family and I have been personally affected 3 times in the last 6 months! Many of these, while they are new, seem to be able to sneak by many anti-virus software mechanisms and appear to be specifically targeting the mortgage and real estate industries.

THREAT #1: This seems to be a particularly nasty one recently that has targeted participants in the mortgage and real estate industry. Beware ANY email that comes to you from “Postal Support”, “Postal Manager”, “UPS Support”, “UPS Manager” or anything similar. The subject line will be something along the lines of “UPS Delivery Problem NR 123456 (any number)”.

This virus is purported, once infected, to capture the names in your contact list and will then broadcast the same email to the members of that list, thus potentially infecting all of those individuals, if they attempt to open the attachment.

Another recognition factor in these viruses is that they all seem to have an attachment and that attachment is a “Zip file” (recognizable by what looks like a small file cabinet being held by a screw clamp… see left).

Threat #2:  Another suspect (which is the one that got me) targets those in the mortgage industry who might be job searching (that would be a sizable chunk of our collective industries over the last 3 years!). This one appears to come from an individual such as “Sean McDonald (any name, really)” and the subject line is “Arlington Heights (Your city) Job Message”. The email itself appears safe, but there are a number of links within the body of the message that will take you to a “Job Board” website. Two of the infections that occurred in my house are a direct result of visiting one of these sites through the email. The resulting infection will open multitudes of reoccurring “Anti-Virus” search/software requests that seem to multiply over time, freezing you out of using your computer!

Suffice to say… if you receive ANY email from even a marginally trusted source, do not open it… ESPECIALLY if it has an attachment… and ESPECIALLY if that attachment is a zip file!!!

Please feel free to contact me through the channel you read this in, if you’d like more information based on my personal experiences.

Currently 1 Comment - Add Your Comment!

Daniel December 17th, 2010

great post, thanks for sharing

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