Virus Alert: You have received a Christmas Greeting Card!

Tonight I've received dozens of emails with the subject You have received a Christmas Greeting Card! and felt is was appropriate to advise everyone.

These emails are fake and carry malware. Norton Internet Security (the current anti-virus software I'm testing) didn't pick up the malware. Microsoft's Security Essentials identified and deleted the malware once it was saved to the computer.

The email purports to be sent from e-cards@123greetings.com and has an attachment with the file name Christmas Card.zip. Inside the zip file is an executable program with the name Christmas Card.doc.exe. The number of spaces is used so the extension exe is not easily visible and tricks people into believing they are receiving a Word document.

Using Microsoft Security Essentials and OzEfilter is an excellent way to identify these malware emails and to delete them safely at the mail server before they reach your computer.

You should immediately delete these emails if you receive them.

- Kelvin Eldridge

Update: It's now 8:10am and dozens more of these emails were received overnight. OzEfilter shows the infected emails coming from Korea, South Africa, Netherlands, France, United States and India, so this infection is worldwide. Norton Internet Security is now identifying and removing removing the malware.