To all internet gurus,
There is a person who is pretty upset with me who recently sent me an email with a picture attached and the following text (in part):

"now be careful as to open it without running a scan on it first as my "illiterate" (expletive deleted) might have planted a virus that is eating away at your hard drive as we speak. now by the time you have read this you will be wondering what might be en-coded within that picture"

I can't print the entire email because this is a family friendly site.

My question: is there an authority this should be reported to, as a threat? I didn't open the picture and my computer has not melted yet, and this guy seems like an annoying fly more than anything but threatening my property seems a bit over the edge.

Thanks for your input

Ed

 

Yes, call the police... that seems to be just as it would be if done personally...

 

I had someone threaten me via an Alumni site of all things. This guy was about 5 cans short a six pack. He then treatened my family, he thought my wife and kids lived at a different address, and posted that address. I personally went to the county, they were befuddled to the piont they could even tell were to go. Then I went to the state police, I guess I was small potatoes to them. I had to report it to HR, because of my clearances. They called the FBI, they were very interested. I think this guy would have been in serious trouble if it hadn't been for 9-11 diverting their attention.

 

It's possible he's just bluffing... you *could* report it to authorities, provided that he's threatening your life or wellness. They might tell you they don't get involved in petty things, but if he's threatening, they can at least talk to him and tell him they've been notified of a problem. And encoded in the picture... while you *can* do that, I sort of doubt he'd have the patience to do that just because he's mad at you. Probably trying to scare you. I'd recommend at least getting the police to talk to him and warn him that his behavior could cost him.

 

You can't deliver viruses via image files.

 

I thought I remembered reading something about that it was possible, but it messes up the picture a little bit. Or is that just general information? Maybe that was a way to sneak information around then?

EDIT:

http://www.informit.com/articles/art...&seqNum=6&rl=1

http://www.stealthencrypt.com/about.html

http://help.insightbb.com/security/secure_computer.aspx

Hey, I just did a check on that... what I was thinking of is described in the first two links. Stealth encrypting, also known as a word that looks like stegosaurus (you'll see it on the pages if you follow the links) . The last link is one that states that you can send viruses through pictures. Unless they mean *as* pictures? Because I can see how a virus would have to be executable and pictures are viewed, not executed, but I don't know everything, so I guess I can't say either way. It is interesting stuff though, isn't it? Makes me feel a little not-safe...

 

Man,this junk bugs the heck out of me,all of this garbage where you have to worry about some gutless wonder sending you a virus.And now after receiving an e-mail from a freind warning me not to use chat lines,I am wondering if anything is safe anymore.Im just glad Webmaster and the administrators keep a watchful eye on the links that people post.I would hate to click on a link and find out I just destroyed my computer.What ever happened to the days when if you had a problem with somebody,you confronted them face to face?

 

Go to the Federal Trade Commision, and also the FBI has a link on their website for such type emails...

 

I would report this to the police, the place that you get your email from (Yahoo, etc) and your ISP service.

Then I would change email addresses (which should be done from time to time anyway just to keep the spam down!) and send out emails to those you want to keep in touch with.

Sounds like someone with way too much time on their hands. The 'Net is a wonderful tool, but like any tool, it can be used for evil as well as for good.

 

I read something on the net a while back about a warning for folks that download pornographic pictures off the newsgroups. It said that they had found trojans embedded in then but it only affects XP users. I don't know how true it was but I don't think you can execute a virus in that manner. I do know that there are programs you can get off the net that you can embed hidden text in a bitmap but you need to have that program to decode them. I have found that a file or picture that you think has a .txt or .jpg or whatever can also have another extention piggy backed on it like a .pif or ***** that will carry the virus or trojan. I don't download any suspicious attachments anyway.

 

You can embed almost anything in a GIF file (abc.gif). It's quite amazing. Just remember that if it's a picture of a pretty bird, witha file size 1.2mb in .GIF format. DON'T OPEN IT!

 

Do what I would do, either send back an email with some sort of smart reply, or just simply delete the email, especially if you don't know the sender. I can almost guarantee that in the original email, the sender was more than likely joking or just bluffingm and more than likely would not have any clue how to do what he said he had done. First clue would be telling you beforehand there is a virus, I don't think too many people would tell someone they sent a virus berfore the attachment was opened.

I would at least forward a copy of the email to either his email provider or his ISP with an explanation of what was going on. They could have the message checked to make sure everything was good and if it did contain a virus, they could track him down.

 

isn't there some sort of website you can go to and report them to? I would definately report to your ISP and if their ISP is different, report to that as well, then report to some sort of policing. I read that there was a website for this kind of stuff, I would definately turn to that. Hope you get all this sorted out and find the idiot that is doing this, I hate when people decide to do that. I had a hacker through AIM, reported him to AOL, not sure what happened with that, but he hasn't messed with me since, who knows.

 

I agree on the police. I had someone threaten to kill my family, do about the sickest things in the world to them, etc., I was told to contact the police to get ahold of the problem and they have to take it from there. I might add I got harrassed by this person for asking a question "like what type of paint to use of stucco" or something simple like that on a common forum. ALways use a alias when you use ANY forum.... I may add he even found my parents and brother at seperate addresses and threatened to kill them....