Hi this is kind of connected to Poser I've recently received a lot of messages to my Hotmail accounts from various people I know and some I don't know usually with a title related to Poser such as "conforming Biker shorts" or "transparency problems" and so on. Each of these messages is about 150k as if a picture is attached but when I open them they are blank. When I go to the reply section a message is revealed which is:- >From: lannie >To: petelite@hotmail.com >Subject: And flower until harvest >Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2002 23:03:19 +0200 (DST) > ><< multipart1 >> As you can see the last one has Lannies address on it. The strange thing is that when I contacted Lannie and others they say that they never sent me any mail... Weird! Anyone else having this problem or know what it is about? I've checked for viruses but everything seems ok.

Yikes! I wonder if that could be a virus. One of those things that attaches to people's address list and sends out messages to random people. I got a blank e-mail from my neice a while back and it scared me because I've had virus problems in the past. So far, nothing's happened, but it still makes me wonder. Melanie

The thing is Melanie this isn't random. Most of the messages come with addresses from someone involved in Poser and have Poser related topics in the subject area. It doesn't seem to be having any effect as a virus apart from the fact it fills up my available space very quickly.

I am getting those emails too. Sometimes Poser related, sometimes from people from the IRC channel I hang out on (except that of course they never sent any). The emails are always empty when I open them and my virus scanner doesn't say anything. It's odd.

Yes, I think that it is, indeed a virus! This was happening to me about a week ago, and when I did a Total virus scan, I discovered that several files were contaminated. I knew something was wrong when I started getting e-mails from people on the forum, people whom I have never written to, but reconized their names..........and people who had no reason to write me about anything. To set your mind at ease, go to www.pc-cillin and do a on-line scan of your hard-drives. If in fact you are infected, they will tell you exactly what virus you have and give you a fix.........btw, it's free. (: I trully hope you are not infected but it is better to be safe then sorry.........I ended up have to re-format, what a pain in the a@@! Genny

I have to tell I bought this new email software, since recently I too have been having alot of email virus problems due to Outlook Express. I hunted and hunted and found the perfect software. What I like about it is 2 things mostly, one it lets me preview all email sent to me on the server, even before it gets to my computer, if I suspect a problem I can delete it off the server and it never touches my computer, so if it has a virus, I don't get it....next I did like the way outlook worked and this looks almost just like it and works about the same way. Plus, it comes with tons and tons of great stuff. It does cost about $50.00, but it is well worth my time saveing and security. I have to do a few things more, but I am quite happy with it.....you can download it for free if you want to try it. Sharen

Sharen, Are you teasing us or did you just "forget" to mention what software you're referring to?

if you run the attachments through a virus scanner you'll find (along with all of them being 125K) that they contain the Klez virus. Here's the NAV logfile from the last one I received... Date: 5/17/02, Time: 4:06:22 AM, cooler on L9A5K6 The file D:EudoraAttachLtf.scr was infected with the W32.Klez.gen@mm virus. One of the pecularities of this virus is that it pulls a random email address & subject from your history file in order to disguise it's true origin. The one above looked like it was sent by a fellow poser modeller & took a bit of digging to find out where it really did come from. DO NOT try to run any of these attachments. If you have & even if it seems like nothing happened you are probably still infected. There is a variant of Klez that is time activated and will lay dormant until the 6th of the month & then activate & destroy all your files with txt, .htm, .html, .wab, .doc, .xls,.jpg, .cpp, .c, .pas, .mpg, .mpeg, .bak, and .mp3. extensions as well as 'seek & destroy' any virus scanning software it finds You can read all abotu it at... http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99367.htm or http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html

hi all thanks for your replies. I just scanned with pc-cillin and fortunately no viruses were found. Cooler the thing is with the messages I have been getting there are no attachments. The email is just empty when opened so there is nothing to scan. only when I go to reply do you see the message I posted above the address of who it came from and the single line:- << multipart1 >>

Attached Link: http://www.incredimail.com/english/index.html

PabloS, I am so sorry, it doesn't cost much but sometimes when I mention things that cost, it creates a stir, but I wouldn't mention it if I really didn't think it was fabulous software, I bought the premium version, but like I said you can download it for free and use the smaller one...sorry, about the link....I guess I really didn't think anyone would ask, but but but......here it is....I just love it. Go check it out, you will love it...expecially if you have Outlook express. Sharen PS: let me know if you did get it, I love helping everyone here, you all have done so much for me and Mike

it may very well be that your ISP is filtering for the Klez virus (there are tools available that work at the STMP level) so all you get is the email, sans attachment.

Keep_it_Free I agree with cooler, those still may contain part of the Klez, it is a nasty little virus.....you can also go to Symantec and they will scan your computer for free also, but if you already did it, and your software is working, you are probably okay. I work with someone who got it, totally had to reformat her computer....pain in the butt, let me ask you did you say they have a subject line in the email also? Sharen

Sharen, the variant of the virus that I'm seeing most often will pull a random subject from your windows history, however one of the pecularities is that it seems to be limited to about 48 characters. In the case I illustrated above the subject was... 'Know this model has to much faces, but i have' and aside from the poor use of english, the fact that the subject was truncated immediately red flagged it for me. What I adopted, a long time ago, as SOP is that, in addition to updating my NAV religiously, all email attachments get quarrantined & scanned before they are run no matter who they come from

Keep-it-Free, Those were exactly the kind of messages I was getting, there was a subject in the subject line, but when I opened it, there was nothing there..........but somehow, I got the Klez virus anyway? I have Outlook, but rarely use it because my DSL server does not "Like it" but do use it on occation when I have to use the dial-up connection. Funny thing is, I didn't get any of these strange messages at that e-mail address but I got the virus anyway? Go figure? Anyway, I am happy to hear you are not infected and all is well. (: Genny

Cooler - You are correct, yes when I got them that happened to me also, and I do the same thing you do, I was getting close to 10 per day, now with the new software, I get none.....but I still do what you do religiously. Invested to much time in my computer to have to reformat all the time. Sharen

That is definetly the Klez virus and you are lucky you didn't get it-- its rampant right now. My Norton tags about 20 email a day from it. Some of it is return mail with my name on it as the sender. I don't have the virus, but it picks up a random name from the infected address box and sends out the virus in their name. This is a plague and I'm getting scared to open Outlook Express anymore. Emily

Emily, I know exactly how you feel....that is why I bought Incredimail...Sharen

Emily; if you Close the PREVIEW PANE of OE and do not open ANY messages that you are not sure of (espesially ones with attachments that you are not expecting) You should (i repeate "should") be safe. I read in one article that the KLEZ takes advantage of 4 holes in the MS HTML reader and can actually activate itself if the carrying message is previewd.....pretty scary but not overcomable (?is that a word?) just do not use the Preview Pane and be carful what you open.... Incredimail also has a free version (?still?) and is a very fun prog too! Of course the free version has a little advertisement and not ALL features, but still fun!

igohigh, yep, I love this little piece of email software, that is why I had to buy it....but it also does that cool thing with the server, of course you have to have the bought one to use the preview of the email sent to you on the server. Sharen PS; also, if you do buy it, not that this is a plug, but some of the work you create from Poser, Vue or what ever, you can submit to have it included in the software, so just think another way to get your work seen...

I just tried going to thr pc-cillin site and got a "page cannot be displayed" page. I copied the link from this post. Is that the correct URL?

This is one of the resons I've never used my address book and have encouraged my firends who have just bought computers not to either, or at the very least, leave me out of them. I have an encrypted txt file with all my email addys on. Paranoid? Who me? l It may take me 30 secs more to get the address in my mail, but hey, at least I know that if I -do- get infected, I won't be sending any back out. Course, I keep my NAV updated and scan all mail before it comes in too.

Attached Link: http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.htm

i downloaded this free virus checker and i run it along side up to date norton and on 2 occasions it has picked up viruses before norton, in one case norton did not find it at all, well worth running in my opinion.

yes I've been running Norton too but it found nothing mind you neither did pc cillin. Anyway it's still going on. I've received 8 more emails since posting this thread :(

Hi all- yes AVG AntiVirus ROCKS- with free unlimited update- the price is right- lol I've one for you about the Klez virus H. A friend of mine, who is on a cable connection(allways on) is walking from here, in michigan to the "Burning Man Festival". The putz left his comp on and its infected now- He keeps sending me about three times a day that damn virus. It's a good thing my isp filters.

I hate that damned thing I have gotten a ton of them this past week all from Poser people's asddies. Some I don't even have in my own address book. That damned worm even uses the addies it finds in their books and then sends out using them as well. I never open unexpected attachments at all - they hgo into the bin and most of the virus software out there won't find klez anyhow - needs a special program to find it.