Postcard from Hallmark Virus Hoax

This is a hoax.

"The Postcard from Hallmark virus hoax is a knock-off on the old A Virtual Card for You hoax. The Postcard from Hallmark hoax includes a link to a Snopes article which is worded in such a way that it appears the hoax warning is legitimate. It isn't. While greeting card scams do exist, they don't bear any resemblance to what's outlined in the hoax. Following is one example of the Postcard from Hallmark virus hoax:Example of hoax email:

THIS ONE IS FOR REAL...
snopes.com: 'Hallmark Postcard from a Family Member' virus
Hi All,
I checked Snopes (URL above, 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

Remember: Hoaxes are a waste of both time and money. Do your friends and family a real favor and please don't forward them on to others. And if you are tempted to forward something 'just in case', read the article Toxic Excuses instead."


Postcard from Hallmark Virus Hoax

There ARE greeting Card Scams

"Attackers are increasingly using greeting card scams to foist trojans on the unsuspecting. Fortunately, there are some tell-tale signs and tips to follow that can help you avoid becoming a victim. Be extra suspicious. Suspect a scam if (a) the greeting card doesn't address you by name; (b) the card sender's name isn't included in the body of the email; (c) the name isn't familiar; and (d) it's not a holiday, a birthday, or any other occasion that might warrant a card. If the card requires that you install a special viewer or tries to download a file to your system, treat it like a trojan. Cancel the download and scan your system with up to date antivirus software.
Be extra vigilant. If you receive a card from someone you know but you aren't quite sure it's legit, compose a new email to that person and ask if they sent you a card. Don't reply using the email you received - the From address just might be bogus.
Typically, the bogus greeting cards try to trick you into downloading a trojan that then tries to download other malicious files to the system. Even worse, the trojan is often cross-infected with the Parite virus. One example of a cross-infected 'greeting card' trojan is Backdoor:IRC/Zapchast.AN.
There are two victims with these greeting card scams - the user who fell for it and the legitimate greeting card company whose good name was used to trick that user. For example, there have recently been several reports of these scams pretending to be from the legitimate - and quite harmless - Bluemountain Greeting Cards site. This is not the first time Bluemountain has been caught in the crosshairs - in 1999 they were the victim of a virus hoax that also tried to discredit their name.
As with all malware and social engineering scams, the best defense is a good offense. Be aware. "

http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/a/greetingcard.htm

Seen this around for a few days on my husbands XP, of course he has more sense than to click on it he knows his life wouldn't be worth living if he screwed that machine up after I gave it to him nice and clean :D

These are variants to *numerous* different ways that innocent people are phished and spammed into virus and trojan hell. Fake messages seeming to be from financial institutions, fake e-cards for celebration of national holidays, and fake videos regarding current events seem to be the top three methods, but there are others as well. Castle Cops keeps a list that is passed around to all sorts of security research firms as well as corporations to monitor new variants as fast as they can be analyzed, and *many* other forums have not only details but listed warnings at new variants that come out - It just makes sense not ot click on anything in email at all, rather use your mouse to hover over hte link and see what ht status bar in your client says as far as the location is concerned - if it says it is taking you to aol, but hte address is your-aol.trusted-sites.com.cn then recognize that just because it has aol in the name does not make it aol.

It's a lot easier to just open your website and open AOL's site directly than clicking on a link that can be disguised in so many different ways so as to fool you into thinking you're going ot one place when in reality you're going somewhere else.

Unfortunately, the folks that really need to know this message never ever get told that in the beginning - I was horrified when I went ot Circuit City last month when they announced the store was closing to actually hear a CC employee tell a first time computer user that "...and in your email, when your friends send you a link you can just click on it directly and it will open up in your web browser...."

I literally cringed. It is this "simplicity" that has gotten us in trouble.