I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article , Alan Gould said:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

Not MS's usual MO for patch distribution. You did the right thing by
checking the updates through the normal channels. The message is
probably best ignored.

HTH,


--Neil.



--
Neil Trotter, Canewdon, UK
Edit email address to reply

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

I got the same e-mail about a fortnight ago. Very convincing but definitely
a hoax although I can't find it listed on the usual virus sites. You did the
right thing to delete it.

Martin

In article , Neil Trotter
writes
In article , Alan Gould said:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

Not MS's usual MO for patch distribution. You did the right thing by
checking the updates through the normal channels. The message is
probably best ignored.

HTH,

or deleted as I did.

Mike
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forthcoming reunions. Royal Navy Social Weekend Sussex May 2nd - 5th.
H.M.S.Collingwood Association Chatham May 30th - June 2nd
British Pacific Fleet Hayling Island Sept 5th - 8th
Castle Class Corvettes Assn. Isle of Wight. Oct 3rd - 6th. Plus many more

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs

M$ never email people security notifications.
You did the right thing by checking windows updates.
Delete the email it's most definately a hoax, and don't download/install
what they're asking at all.
L

In message , Zizz
writes

M$ never email people security notifications.

They do if you join their security updates mailing-list.

--
dave @ stejonda

October 7 Bush Iraq Speech Analysis http://www.accuracy.org/bush/

On Tue, 25 Mar 2003 06:06:22 +0000, Alan Gould wrote:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

I have had five or six of these over the last few weeks and all from
different email addresses. I know when I am receiving one because my
modem takes much longer to download it than your average spam email.
They all have been deleted.

PT

"Paul Taylor" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 25 Mar 2003 06:06:22 +0000, Alan Gould wrote:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?


The attachment contains a virus called Gibe.B. You are right not to run the
attachment. The link below will take you to Symantec's description of it
http://tinyurl.com/6is8

Nicky

On Tue, 25 Mar 2003 09:03:06 +0000, "dave @ stejonda"
wrote:

In message , Zizz
writes

M$ never email people security notifications.

They do if you join their security updates mailing-list.

I subscribe to this at work because I am responsible for some MS
servers. The bulletins are digitally signed and always give the
address of the technical articles on the Microsoft website that
describe the problem and fix. Microsoft released a couple of critical
updates last week, including one that affects Windows Scripting on
every version of Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...n/MS03-008.asp
(or http://makeashorterlink.com/?K214223F3 if your newsreader wraps
the long URL.)

Other sources of independent information (independent of the companies
whose software is being fixed, that is) include the new UK Resilience
site at http://www.ukresilience.info/virus.htm, CERT at
http://www.cert.org, and antivirus companies such as Sophos, at
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/, who document many of the
hoaxes and scams that are in circulation.

I'd better mention that I'm just off to the allotment shortly to try
to work out where I'm going to put my potatoes this year! This is
actually a displacement activity as I *should* be working out how I am
going to erect the greenhouse that I've had sitting in pieces in my
yard for the last 18 months - foundations are the problem as I am
reluctant to put down concrete footings on the allotment.
--
Stuart Baldwin
news\at/boxatrix\dot/co\dot/uk

Alan Gould wrote:

have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch.

I get these all the time. I use Mac & therefore have never registered
for any Micrsnot product.

It's obviously a hoax and will probably do unseemly things to the
contents of your computer. Forward a copy of it to abuse@microsoft .com
and then trash immediately


--
~/ireland/dublin

It is indeed a hoax but one which contains a virus attachment : look at
Norton Antivirus support and you will see the following

W32.Gibe.B@mm is a variant of W32.Gibe@mm. This mass-mailing worm uses
Microsoft Outlook and its own SMTP engine to send itself to all the contacts
in the Microsoft Outlook Address Book and the Windows Address Book. The
email is disguised as a Microsoft Security Update and it arrives with an
attachment that has a .exe or .zip file extension.

W32.Gibe.B@mm copies itself as WebLoader.exe to the startup folder of all
the mapped remote drives. This worm also attempts to spread through the
KaZaA file-sharing network and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). W32.Gibe.B@mm may
send itself to some news groups whose URLs are carried by the worm.

This threat is written in the Microsoft Visual Basic programming language.

NOTE: Virus definitions dated on February 25, 2003 may detect this threat as
W32.Gibe@mm.



Also Known As: WORM_GIBE.B [Trend], W32/Gibe.b@mm [McAfee], W32/Gibe-D
[Sophos], I-Worm.Gibe.b [KAV], Win32.Gibe.B [CA]
Type: Worm
Infection Length: 155,648 bytes
Systems Affected: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows
XP, Windows Me
Systems Not Affected: Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Linux
CVE References: CVE-2001-0154

Hope that helps

Neil

"Mike" wrote in message
...
In article , Neil Trotter
writes
In article , Alan Gould said:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft
Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

Not MS's usual MO for patch distribution. You did the right thing by
checking the updates through the normal channels. The message is
probably best ignored.

HTH,

or deleted as I did.

Mike
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Forthcoming reunions. Royal Navy Social Weekend Sussex May 2nd - 5th.
H.M.S.Collingwood Association Chatham May 30th - June 2nd
British Pacific Fleet Hayling Island Sept 5th - 8th
Castle Class Corvettes Assn. Isle of Wight. Oct 3rd - 6th. Plus many more

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

It is a hoax, but why ask here?

I could be lying.

--
Brian
"Happy St George's Day. It either is, just was, or soon will be."

Xref: news7 uk.rec.gardening:131199


inet.net, Zizz
writes

M$ never email people security notifications.

They do if you join their security updates mailing-list.

Yes, but not like this one. The subject line was different and the
appearance was different.

I hesitated about opening it because of the subject line but my virus thingy
had removed the nasty worm so I was lucky.

Mary

--
dave @ stejonda

October 7 Bush Iraq Speech Analysis http://www.accuracy.org/bush/

--
Brian
"Happy St George's Day. It either is, just was, or soon will be."

It's almost a month away - 23 April!

Today is Lady Day.

Mary

In article , Brian Watson
writes
It is a hoax, but why ask here?

I asked here partly because I know that some urglers are better versed
in these matters than I am and partly to alert others of the scam.
Gardeners traditionally help each other when asked to. I have now
deleted the mailing and I thank everyone who has responded.

FWIW I use NAV/Symantec and MS Windows XP, both kept regularly updated.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.