# MSN Messenger Virus Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015 "2001-11-29T22:14:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kamikazee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Kamikazee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamikazee)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015/1 "2001-11-29T22:14:24Z")

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When chatting with my son, (I am at work and he is at home), I get repeated messages from him saying “want to see my new pics”… “I took them yesterday.” He is not sending them nor does he see them on his end. Then msn tries to send me a file which I do not ever accept. Looked around msn website but could not find any reference to a virus list. Anyone heard of this and if so where can I go to download a vaccine?

We have mcaffee at home and a fire wall at work. But the home mcaffee is out of date so suspect that is where the bug is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

K

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015/2 "2001-11-29T22:35:06Z")

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A friend of mine got this and I nearly clicked ‘accept’.

I believe that the Trend Housecall online scanner will clean it up ( [http://www.antivirus.com/housecall](http://www.antivirus.com/housecall) )  
Alternatively, IIRC tha trojan doesn’t make much of an effort to hide itself and I think that removing it may be as simple as finding files named TROJ\*.\* and deleting them (although you might have to uninstall and reinstall messenger or something)

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**Author:** ![Kamikazee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Kamikazee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamikazee)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015/3 "2001-11-29T22:38:44Z")

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Thanks, am leaving work now and will try to go virus busting tonight. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015/4 "2001-11-29T22:45:29Z")

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I’ve just re-read your question and it’s your friend’s computer that is infected; his MSN client is being manipulated by the trojan to send you the messages, as long as you haven’t clicked ‘accept’, then you won’t be infected (if you had been infected, people would be commenting that _you_ kept trying to send them a picture).

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**Author:** ![Kamikazee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Kamikazee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamikazee)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/msn-messenger-virus-question/96015/5 "2001-11-30T01:31:25Z")

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Thanks for the help, I could not make the link to [antivirus.com](http://antivirus.com) work. I e-mailed MSN directly and they gave me info on how to delete this scourge. you are right it is pretty simple and does not hide well. The virus was not on my work computer but on our home computer from which my son was chatting.

Over and out :):):