A Message From Microsoft . Genuine or Phising ?

Factual Questions
1

This e-mail popped into my in-box today

Dear Sir/Madam,
We kindly ask you to install this update to your PC as soon as possible.
In the libraries of OS Windows® critical errors have been found. This errors lead to destruction of the system files from your computer without an opportunity on restoration. The given service-pack fixes libraries and does not allow various Trojan modules to penetrate into your computer.
Yours Faithfully,
Microsoft INC

There was also an attachment which I did not open. Is this an attempt by a phisher to get me to download a worm or is this a genuine message from Microsoft? My bets are on the former , especially because of the bad English .

2

Microsoft provides updates via the Windows Updater, not by email. So yes, it’s most likely a virus.

3

The grammar is all screwy. Phishing, definitely.

4

Heh. I get those all the time, and I run Macs only. At least the PayPal and eBay phishers try to look legit.

5

How to Tell If a Microsoft Security-Related Message Is Genuine straight from the horse’s …

6

Ass? :smiley:

What? You know you were thinking it, too.

7

Any message of this kind that contains misspelling and bad grammar is certainly phishing. (And 99.999% of all such messages are phishing anyway, even if they are perfect in spelling and grammar - which at least in my experience they rarely are.) I recently received a message purportedly from my bank (probably coincidentally, it was from a company at which I actually do have an account) telling me that they were updating their “security standarts” and needed me to click on their link. What :wally’s!

8

Microsoft only sends security alerts to people who have gone to Microsoft and signed up for them. They don’t come out of the blue. But it’s a standard issue for viruses to pretend to be from some authority.

BTW, this is a virus, not phishing – phishing always takes you to a website and never have attachments. Viruses generally have attachments (some have had links to websites, but those don’t last very long, since the site is quickly taken down).

9

I’ve had four of these in the last two days, apparently there’s a lot of it about. Bizarrely no-one seems to know much about it..

Anyhow, it’s a trojan virus and installation will probably turn your computer into a further source of the same virus and a spam zombie into the bargain.

10

No doubt about it. Pure BS. Install at your own risk!
MS auto install of updates is enough pain. Don’t ask for more than you can handle.

11

On this general subject (and it may have been covered by another thread), I’ve received messages purportedly from Comcast stating that I have to update my profile or my service will be canceled. I was directed to click on a hyperlink. After I ignored that message, the next day I got another one stating that they were giving me another chance. :slight_smile:

12

You could always forward it to this guy.