I have never liked the idea of eCards. Not because I’m a cheapskate who thinks most of our holidays were invented by Hallmark for profit.
The reason I don’t like eCards, Postcards, or whatever, is because you never really know if you should open them. How is the average person supposed to keep tabs on which online eCard companies are legit and which aren’t?
The current threat to your PC’s health, and even your data, is a trojan going around that shows up as a Postcard from a (friend, relative, partner, affiliate, you name it) that, when opened, infects your system. This latest one will even Talk to you while it destroys data; according to Panda Labs.
Please do not open this email!
If eCards are used, they should only come as an email from the person you know and trust, not the eCard company – are they on your white list? In the email, the person should type a short note that helps you to determine that it wasn’t computer generated by a bot, zombie, trojan, etc. Only then could you possible feel comfortable clicking the link to get the card.
Does that take some of the “fun” out of it? Sorry. I could use an analogy here, but I might lose my “G” rating if I did.
Panda Labs is stating that normal anti virus programs are not protecting against this latest threat. Trend Micro seems to think they do.
If this is truly a Trojan, then you should be using BOClean, which is now free. I will try to update my web page on that soon.
