There is a new e-card virus currently making the rounds that is targeting your cash and wreaking mayhem on your computer. Experts are calling the virus ’severe’, and it is being disguised as a Hallmark greeting card.
Basically there is an email going around, that in one case even came to someones inbox as an email from ecards@hallmark.com. It says something along the lines of you have received a Hallmark greeting card from a friend, to view it click the attachment, which is named postcard.zip.
However, Hallmark doesn’t have any e-cards that they make you download. This is a virus, and it’s after your money. It’s primary goal is to steal your financial information, like your banking pin number and the like. It has been making it’s way from Eastern Europe, and could just send the greeting card business back to paper cards, it is that bad.
It works by infecting core Window’s files slowly, so that you never even know it’s there, and it’s going to be just about impossible to fix it with your run of the mill anti virus. So what kind of protection efforts are being made?
Well with Hallmark, they never require any downloading of files, nor do they use .exe files. If you get an e-card from Hallmark that asks you to download something, delete it. It’s not genuine and will infect your computer.
Also, with Hallmark, e-cards are always sent from the sender, not from Hallmark itself. So if you receive something from Hallmark itself, or don’t recognize the sender, again it isn’t genuine, and you need to delete it.
They never require the receiver to enter any type of personal info or user names and passwords to retrieve an e card, and all notifications will have a link to the card on Hallmark.com, and a URL to the e card inside the actual email.
Bottom line? Don’t open any e cards from unfamiliar people, and until this threat passes, it is probably best to refrain from getting e cards altogether.