MSN now opens a window where wee see things happening :
It starts a frame with with the words Virus - (1513 kB)
Then it says "scanning C disk"
Then "installing"
Then "propagating"
Then it ends with "Thank you for usin' and sharin'"
What is that thing ?
Is it a fake ?
Or is it a ral virus ? I must confess I'm a little bit afraid.

A goggling made me find a german site saying roughly "probably a fake". However, even if it's a fake, it behaves like a trojan because it's a program residing on your computer and activated evrytime you open a new window.

If somebody has info, I would appreciate.
Regards
Yordan

Yeesh... that does sound bad...

Well, you could call one of those toll-free help hotlines... I think MSN has one.

Of course, the people on the other line never know what they're talking about.

Well, it probably is some kind of a virus, since it shouldn't be there. But I wouldn't be so worried. MSN is dumb and exploitable (as everything is), but there are no real threats that I know of. What can I say, switch to GoogleTalk It's probably one of those gags that should make you really scared.

Yes, I will switch to Google Talk as soon as all my contacts will switch from hotmail to gmail. However, today, I would like to know if this "Virus - (1513 kB)" thing is a hoax or not.
At least, it's something running on my contact's PC, so I would like to be able to tell him how to get rid of this.

And, of course, Astahost is still my favourite help line...

This post has been edited by yordan: Jun 13 2006, 06:23 PM

I found 2 sites that seem to be relating to this. The first one is probably the German site you've mentioned, at http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/theme211/article3233136.html. The second one is also in a foreign language, but it's not one that Google or Babelfish could translate. Anyway, the site is http://www.spelforum.nu/forum/index.asp?ac...d=11551&forum=3. I don't know how this can help you, but maybe some of the Astahost members who understand the language might notice this topic and help out? But I wonder why this English-speaking virus has only been noted by people in other countries.

I'm a bit confused about your situation here: Did you hear it from your friend, or did you encounter this virus yourself? And are you talking about MSN Messenger? What did you mean by "new window" (what kind of window)? Maybe your friend (or you) downloaded a fake copy of MSN Messenger from a virus site. Tell your friend (or yourself ) to unistall the current copy of Messenger and then try downloading it directly from the Microsoft site and see if the virus symptoms are still there...

OK, I'll tell him to uninstall his version of MSN. I was curious to see if his strange message was really able to do what it said (scanning, propagating). If this is the case, I must immediately stop using MSN Messenger on any of my own computers in order not to propagate to my contacts.
And, by the way, yes, the german site is almost readable, the danish or swedish one is less obvious. Maybe a swedish guy at asta could provide a translation ? Isn't it funny that this unspellable site is named spellforum?

the supposed virus that you are talking is about is only a simple set of three pictures, pasted together and when sent play like a movie, in the steps that you said above. If you right click on each individual part of the picture, you can save it to your own computer. I think it started out as a harmless joke! but as some people see it - it can get serious, not funny to be joking about viruses!

Aah, you are right! I've just checked my MSN, since I have those three emoticons, and that's what yordan was talking about - it shows 1513kb So yes, you shouldn't worry, it's just a prank.

P.S. The "new window" thing you mentioned confused me - but I suppose it was just a new conversation window, right?

LOL, you guys actually fell for it ... LMAO!!! That is such an old prank. I've seen this prank as far back as 2-3 years ago. I already knew it was a series of 3 emoticons, as if you look closely, you'll see a fine border line in between the bars. Plus, when you check if your computer is even loading anything, the Windows Task Manager shows 0%.

My cousin still uses it on his brother still to this day, he'll never learn .

xboxrulz

This post has been edited by xboxrulz: Nov 1 2006, 06:19 PM

Itz not
MSN \"Thank You For Using\" And Sharing

Replying to yordan
Itz not a virus, I have that thing
Itz a three piece
Emoticon

-reply by Ken Blake