I received a weird email with an attachment

In the subject line it said: server report and it was From: bfm@teleregion.co.uk
and had an a zipped attachment. When I clicked on it (I know I shouldn't have) it became a relatively small file labeled doc.scr. My Imac wouldn't open it and I ran my virus program and it didn't find anything. Does anyone know what this kind of file is.Is it someone trying to give me a virus??

My Norton picked it up when I downloaded my e-mail.

Emillereid wrote:

In the subject line it said: server report and it was From: bfm@teleregion.co.uk and had an a zipped attachment. When I clicked on it (I know I shouldn't have) it became a relatively small file labeled doc.scr. My Imac wouldn't open it and I ran my virus program and it didn't find anything. Does anyone know what this kind of file is.Is it someone trying to give me a virus??

These things usually mail themselves. Most likely, nobody is trying to send you a virus.

As to the rest, it probably is some sort of a worm (though there isn't enough information to know which it is --is your anti-virus signature file up to date?) but, since most of these worms are targeted toward the Windows platform you're probably O.K. (of course, this assumes you're not running a PC emulator on your Mac). As to the ".scr" extension, it corresponds to screen-savers in Windows-land. The reason you see this so often is because it is one of several extensions which is considered executable by the operating system (others are ".bat", ".pif", ".com", ".exe" and ".cmd").

On edit: Added a question mark.

the click on attachment starts it.

Time to go and be cleaned!

:-(

never to open an attachment if you don't know who it came from. Or if you're not sure that the person it came from was actually planning on sending you something.

Of course, ya do have a certain amount of insulation from the world of crapola in being a Mac user! :thumbsup:

Subject line was, simply, Hi
There was no text but an attachment named document.exe

I'm VERY sceptical.

Delete it.

Others have already given you a good explanation of the danger here, and that you should just delete it and never run a .scr file.

And if you are using Outlook, DUMP IT. It's so full of security holes, and so easily manipulatable, and so poorly designed, you will always have problems.

Get yourself a safe email client like The Bat! (http://www.ritlabs.com). Virus and worm proof, and it won't won't html email unless you tell it to (html email is another great way to give people viruses and other problems; when I'm president, html email will be a felony :-) )

But seriously, if you are using Outloko, or Outlooko express, dump it immediately and go to anything. it's not only poorly put together, but the majority of email-based worms and viruses are designed around Outlook's problems.

It said it was from Keith something, and it said send to like minded people...I figured it was either a virus or a freeper piece, and I deleted it.
Duckie

unless you know who it from and what's in it. Yesterday afternoon Norton did not have any informatiion on this virus, however, McAfee did have some.

Security Check. It said I wasn't vulnerable to hackers or trojan horses. Being a Mac user I'm not saavy to much of this. I have a virus program (virus barrier), but I have to confess I don't think about it very often. I updated and ran it last night and again this morning -- and it claims everything is a ok -- picked up a couple of corrupted files that I'd put in the trash.

Is there a mac online security thing at symantec or trendmicro I can run. Do you have a link? Thanks for all the great advice.

or not expected. NEVER.

I got the same type thing yesterday and deleted it. We've got great anti-virus stuff here at work, but a new virus has been known to slip through.

just delete any attachment from someone you don't know, and confirm any attachments from known people before you open. It's better to be safe than sorry.

.
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"The virus also copies itself to the Kazaa download directory on PCs, on which the file-sharing program is loaded. The virus camouflages itself, using one of seven file names, including Winamp5, RootkitXP, Officecrack and Nuke2004. Variations in the body text include: "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment."

/snip/

" Mail systems that remove executable files from e-mails can stop the program from spreading. "