Virus or Hoax?

[MattMaster5000]

Today i got some emails saying that I emailed a virus 3 times to someone on my address book, and since the obvious answer would be that I have a virus, I tryed scanning my computer with Norton AntiVirus. I found nothing, and so I asked my dad and he said that he got an email about that. And so he showed it to me. Here's what the email said :

I am sorry. A dangerous virus, called sulnk.exe, has been sent to me by someone who has my address in her address books. It is transmitted automatically via address books. Because I have your address it may have been transmitted to your computer. It is not always detected by McAfee or Norton and lies dormant for fourteen days before it closes an entire system. It can be deleted before it does any harm as follows: 1. Go to start - then "find" or "search" 2. In search for file or folders type in "sulfnbk.exe" 3. In the look in make sure you are searching Drive C 4. Hit Search button (or find) 5. If this file shows up (it's an ugly blackish icon that will have the name sulfnbk.exe) DO NOT OPEN IT 6. RIGHT CLICK on the file - go down to delete and left click 7. Click on yes and send it to the recycle bin. 8. Go to your desktop (where all your icons are) and double click on the recycle bin. 9. RIGHT CLICK on sulfnbk.exe and delete again - or emplty bin. IF YOU FIND IT, YOU WILL HAVE THE SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. I HAVE DELETED IT FROM MY COMPUTER. IF IT HAS INFECTED YOUR COMPUTER YOU SHOULD ACT PROMPTLY BEFORE IT DOES ANY DAMAGE. Stephen Screech

This was a forwarded message that my dad got, he has already deleted the file. I also have, but i can get it back from Norton UnErase. I just don't know if this is just a scare to get people to forward the message, a hoax, or real. I'm thinking more along the lines of somebody trying to get people to delete this file because it is a system file that you need for the computer. What should I do? Has anyone else gotten this email? I hate virus problems, they really suck ass.

[Del_Boy]

It is 100% fake just ignore it.

Sulfnbk is a legit windows system file that deals with something called Long Filename support. DON'T DELETE IT, also never believe anything from an email forward!

For further info check out this site
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ven...e.warning.html

[Del_Boy]

Oh, and real virus companies NEVER EVER ask you to forward on a virus warning.

Next time before deleting the file do a quick search on the file name on Google. If you look at the link I gave you just it will have instructions on how to restore that file.

[gannondorf]

for further notice, sulfnbk is windows virtual extension driver (vxd) that controls how long filename entries are written in disk file allocation table and master boot record. if that vxd fails, due to some reason, long filename entries would be disabled and your operating system would be down.

example : the folder "my documents" would have a new name that is created by simple dos rules - "MYDOCU~1"

p.s if event described above happened to somebody, and if that sulfnbk is not corrupted, that's because somebody ignited dos application that handles fat entries (for example microsoft defrag from dos 6.2 - if you execute this program from windows 95 and above, all the files that were moved from their original locations to new locations on disk sectors (that's how defragging works) will have dos 8 bytes long filename format and they will lose their original long filename entries (up to 255 bytes per file or folder name))

[Magus]

I recently recieved in my mail what I believe to be a real virus. It was sent by someone calling himself Steve. The e-mail said that the attached file was something he wanted my opinion on. I scanned it with Mcaffee which said that it was an incurable virus and should not be downloaded. Has anyone else got this?

[Parha_ha]

Nope Magus. Another place where i find viruses is on MSN Messenger. Im not sure if it is the same with AOL Messenger and the like but they can be hell annoying.

[Del_Boy]

Magus, if it said:

I send this file in order to have your opinion

Or something like that it was the Sircam virus, once opened it sends itself to everyone in the persons address book. Their is another payload more nasty but that seldom kicks in. And it is treatable.

[MattMaster5000]

Yes, but what about that email message i got saying that i sent a virus to someone, I don't know if i have a virus or not. If it happens again, i'll post what it says, cause i have already deleted the message. I wonder what the problem is, i haven't experienced any problems with my computer for quite some time.

[Del_Boy]

A) Do a search of part of the message on Google

B) Read the email headers, do you know this person?

C) Make sure Norton is fully updated and scan again, also download The Cleaner from www.moosoft.com in case you have a Trojan.

In all likelyhood though this is just a total false alarm designed to scare.

[JSWY]

I got this message and I did delete the file but i'm gonna reformat the computer soon anyway (I have really screwed up those sodding drivers)