A new e-mail hoax
Security Information Week 39, 1999
Recently a new e-mail hoax has been spreading quite aggressively.
Subject of the e-mail is !!!WARNING -- DESPITE-virus!!! -FMBW.
The body of the mail reads:
!!!!!This is not SPAM or joke!!!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi from Ukraine.
When you receive this message, all computers in your network is already infected by DESPITE-virus.
11th of October, 1999, data in the all databases will be lost. For disinfect you need to use only STARIONI disinfector.
- Send to data@aip.mk.ua your valid e-mail address with subject "DESPITE".
- Send US$24.99 to the following bank account.
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Bank account: BENEFICIARY: NIKOLAEV BRANCH CB "PRIVATBANK" BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: 27 FRUNZE STR., NIKOLAEV UKRAINE ACCOUNT: 3901 9 004017 003
BANK OF BENEFICIARY: COMMERCIAL BANK "PRIVATBANK" ADDRESS OF THE BENEFICIARY'S BANK: DNEPROPETROVSK, UKRAINE SWIFT: PBAN UA 2X CORRESPONDENT ACCOUNT: 890-0085-754
INTERMEDIARY BANK: THE BANK OF NEY YORK ADDRESS OF THE INTERMEDIARY BANK: Eastern Europe Division One Wall St., 9-th Floor New York, N.Y., 10286, USA SWIFT: IRVT US 3N
DETAILS OF PAYMENTS: IN FAVOUR acc.26206791707001/875 RACHKOVAN VADIM
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After receiving your bank transaction, the STARIONI disinfector in self-extract archive "starioni.exe"(74.648 bytes) will have been deliver to your mailbox immediately.
Copyright (c)1999 SILF Group.
It should be needless to say that this is just another e-mail hoax. However, it is special in the way that it recommends that money should be paid to get rid of the alleged virus. Nor does the hoax tell you to send it to "all your friends" as such hoaxes normally do.
Norman has not paid the money to the bank account to see if one gets the starioni.exe program. If such a program is sent you by e-mail, however, it might be a clever way to infect your computer by a real virus.
More information about virus hoaxes are available here.
Per Olav Førland
