Warning over trick email virus
21 April 2005
Web users are being warned about a new Windows virus posing as a complaint about misdirected email.
The virus, a variant of the Sober worm claims that email messages are going astray and attempts to trick users into opening an email attachment, which it claims contains copies of the wrongly addressed messages.
The subject line of the Sober.N variant reads: " I've_got your EMail on my_account!" and "FwD: Ich bin's nochmal". It carries attachments with names like your_text.zip and when opened scans files on the infected computer to harvest email addresses that enable the worm to spread.
Any harvested address is sent back to the worm's creator and is probably sold on to spammers.
The main text of the English version begins "Hello, First, Very Sorry for my bad English. Someone is sending your private e-mails on my address". The email then informs the recipient that ten of their personal emails are attached in a zip file.
The Sober virus emerged in October 2003 and has since been regularly updated. The latest variant has appeared in both German and English.
Symantec has released an advisory on the Sober variant, rating its damage as "medium".
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