Theres a new virus going around recently that people should be aware of and it comes in the form of an email media file attachment.
Most of us are used to getting funny video or audio clips from friends via email. Usually the same email has been forwarded on many times and you can see the list of people and email addresses that its been to before you. These emails always seem to originate from people with business email addresses which always makes me wonder what they get up to in the office all day!
Most of the time the email is from someone you know and is both harmless and funny but heres some reasons you might be annoying people by circulating these emails:
- Sometimes, as recently with this new scam, the media file is actually a backdoor trojan virus which can cause a lot of harm or at least annoying pop-up adds on your pc and you will just be propagating the virus by receiving it and sending it on.
- Often the media file is in a format that the receiver can’t play because they don’t have the relevant software on their pc’s. Powerpoint .pps files are quite common as well as video files created with strange codecs that aren’t on your system therefore you can’t play the file.
- Many media files are very large in file size and will take an eternity to receive for those with slow internet connections (yes we still exist).
- Certain people, me included, have better things to do than wait for these attachments to come through and watch or listen to them!!
If you come across a clip thats is just too funny to resist sending to someone then look for a web address or link to send on and don’t include the file in an email. Looking at this kind of stuff on the web can be dangerous too but perhaps less so and less annoying than actually sending it to someone’s computer!
Leon.
Reverb Studios Design 