is there a virus?

[Hgrove]

is there a virus going round? in the last few days I have been receiving e-mails from people I don't know, going straight into my bulk folder. There are no attachments. The latest 3 are size 45k each and have subjects like: barometer moonlighting; metaphysics exhort; sergeant newfangled.

[rojash]

They are probably just spam. Random words are thrown in to get round spam filters. You do have decent and up to date AV in place? Have you looked at them? Judging by the size they are embedded jpegs. The spammers try to get round Anti-spam filters by using random words in the subject line, and then instead of a text document (which would contain the types of words and phrases that would identify the mail as typical spam) they embed a picture of the text they want you to read. Most spam filters are now wise to this trick and flag all e-mails that contain only pictures as spam.

[antiguru]

.... and also lots of spam filters just bench e-mails that have been sent to lots of people at once. It sounds like your e-mail address has got onto a spam list. If it gets unbearable just change your address.

Virus checking is a different matter. There are also viruses going round. Google the title of the e-mail address if you're worried. And get a reliable virus checker.

[wideboy]

I have my Bulk Folder delete the mail automatically so I never see them. (Bit risky I know because some companies send out flyers and might end up there if they're not in the address book).

[vpcsolutions]

If you think you have a virus, the best thing to do is to download free anti-virus and find out.

You can download AVG Anti-Virus for free from this site -
http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tools_anti_vir us.html

You can read about How To Remove Viruses here -
http://www.malwaresolutions.com/how_to_remove_ viruses.html

I hope this helps!