Viral Spam

[JJValero Writer]

There is the possibility that an object called "..::ExDepart::.. Gift Package 2012" Submit you a gift. Not accept it, or a little green dwarf will exit from the screen of your computer and will drink all your beer from the refrigerator.

ummm, no, seriously. This is a small and invisible prim. when it is rezzed goes at an altitude of 4000 meters and from there sent spam to all the avatars of the simulator offering them the same gift. When many avatars have fallen into the same trap, all who are in the same region will receive a barrage of spam.

This object does not send spam to its owner, so it is possible that many have that in their plot and not know they are sending spam.

Just, do not accept objects from unknown objects or avatars.

 

[phaedra Exonar]

I got one of those last night, but I deleted it before rezzing when I saw it had no creator listed,  I had know idea what it did until now.  Thanks for letting us know.

[Jacki Silverfall]

I got one today and since I didn't know who sent it and it was not part of the regular items I get I did not except it. Thank you for the information.

[Tiffy Vella]

It's wise to never accept these objects, and never ever rezz them in an area where scripts can run. I know this object is spreading itself around SL atm, and have had to deny it a few times in sandboxes.

What I'm suspecting, after 5 years in SL, and having had similar objects pop up into the SL consciousness every few weeks or so, and having endured 5 years of group chats, group notices, all warning of these objects is that the object is not the spam. The anti spam message is the spam. That is what the "virus" is..it's waves of "DO NOT REZZ THIS OBJECT SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR GROUPS" messages that hit us repeatedly during our time inworld.

Honestly, during a day of doing work in SL, I hear them constantly, and they all follow this pattern, and they never end. Next month the object will be called something different, but it will be just as evil, will also bludge all your beer and make your fridge frost over so your carrots go all squishy, and we will all endure the group warnings all over again, and all be told to pass on the message.

People are spending time and brainspace passing on this message, and I've done it too. The amount of time we spend with the message is actually quite a lot when you consider multiplying it over all the people who are working away quite productively, keeping one eye on a few group conversations, and next thing it's OMG NASTY SCAMMING OBJECT TIME, and everything goes out the window for the next 5 minutes. I have never ever ever met anyone who has lost anything from one of these objects, although the stories circulating always quote some close friend who lost their house and dog. Somebody I'm sure will come along after me and tell me I'm awful because they do know somebody who was an actual victim from the actual object.

I have suspicions that the creator of the object starts the message off, and laughs as every good and honest person in SL passes on the message. I am not at all criticising you, JJ, for posting this, as you are well meaning and intelligent and want us to avoid harm. But thats what the virus relies upon. Our niceness, and wish to help.

[Perrie Juran]

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Tiffy Vella wrote:

It's wise to never accept these objects, and never ever rezz them in an area where scripts can run. I know this object is spreading itself around SL atm, and have had to deny it a few times in sandboxes.

What I'm suspecting, after 5 years in SL, and having had similar objects pop up into the SL consciousness every few weeks or so, and having endured 5 years of group chats, group notices, all warning of these objects is that the object is not the spam. The anti spam message is the spam. That is what the "virus" is..it's waves of "DO NOT REZZ THIS OBJECT SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR GROUPS" messages that hit us repeatedly during our time inworld.

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^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

I get very tough on people who spread false warnings.  It's a great example of 'social engineering.'

I've had friends send me links to web pages and they didn't even realize there was malicious code embedded in the web page that was warning about an exploit that didn't exist!

And I just totally love when people fall back on "better safe than sorry" as an excuse for spreading these false warnings.  That is just a lame excuse for being too lazy to check something out before passing it on.

I'm over five years in SL and except for the Bloodlines bite I got as a newb, have never received a malicious item.  Nor has a single warning I have received held water when I checked it out.

The very few verified malicious things we have seen warned about in the forums (and I can only think of two now off the top of my head) very clearly were cases of social engineering, and the OP's did admit they had made the mistake of falling for it.

I am not saying that there aren't malicious objects.  But if they were a tenth as proliferate as some of the warnings I get make them sound to be, half the SIM's in SL on any given day would be drowning in this stuff.

[Czari Zenovka]

You hit the nail on the proverbial head, Tiffy!

[Calamari]

I've read a lot of warnings messages over the years in SL, and I've never encountered any of the scams people were talking about.  I don't waste a lot of time getting worried over these things, I quickly read them and go on with my life, but I'm glad I read the warnings.  This week I got a message that had a link to the marketplace, and because I had read the warnings, I noticed that it had the wrong URL and was using a fake log in page to try to get my account password.

I don't see the problem with some one posting to the forums how to identify and locate a spam object so you can avoid or remove it.  Had the post just been "OMG PANIC AND OTHER SPAM ATTACK" I can see that as adding to the problem, specially if people start chatting to groups about it.  For Those of us that have been in SL for years I can see how post like this could get old, but for new residents this might be the first time they are learning what/how to avoid things like this.  

[Ordinal Malaprop]

These ExDepart objects seem to have my name on as creator - I have a lot of full permissions free scripts and objects around - which has led to a lot of semi-coherent insults directed at me via IM by people who do not understand griefing tactics, permissions or simple politeness.

I would like to point out that clearly I have nothing to do with this nonsense, but I fear that anyone sensible enough to look at the forums before taking action is probably too sensible to send out spittle-flecked rants to people they don't know in the first place. So it is unlikely to do much good. Oh well.

[Vesperaxox]

So uhhh....  I was a noob and rezzed the object and now I'm being spammed...  Any idea how to get rid of the virus/viral thing and make it stop spamming???

[Ordinal Malaprop]

It moves to 4000m up when rezzed, and is full alpha. If you turn on "highlight invisible" and go to 4000m, it should be there. When it sends spam there will be a TP link to its exact location.

[Lindsay Wickentower]

There is no way to be able to mute the sender because u don't know who it is.  I have gotten at least 40 of these gifts, deleted discarded, this is scary:)

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Lindsay Wickentower wrote:

There is no way to be able to mute the sender because u don't know who it is.  I have gotten at least 40 of these gifts, deleted discarded, this is scary:)

 

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ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch

Are you using the official viewer?

Two issues that I now see are inter related even if you aren't using the official viewer.

1.  See this JIRA.  https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-28743   This problem is fixed in the current release of Firestorm but STILL NOT FIXED in the OFFICIAL VIEWER!

2.  See the comments about muting objects in this Forum thread.  http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Gripe-of-the-day/td-p/1620329

 

[JJValero Writer]

It works similarly to the old network worm "ILOVEYOU". That is, using the curiosity of people to spread. In a crowded place, like a sandbox, when someone rezz one of those objects in a few minutes can be 10 or 20 or more.

For those living on private islands, probably not a problem. But those who frequent sandboxes or own sandboxes is a very big problem.

By the way, I publish this script. This is a modification of my anticage script. Must be put at 4000 m altitude and ban the owners of "ExDepart" objects for 6 hours. Enough time to know not to accept and rez that object.

But it would be ideal if Linden Labs will ban that object

 

float TIME = 10.0;float RADIUS = 96.0;float HOURS_BAN_TIME = 6.00; 
string CAGE_NAME = "..::ExDepart::.. Gift Package 2012";// List of creator of cages. I prefer no make one list of avatar UUID. Instead i use MD5.list lCreatorsMD5Key = [             "89adb4af5c4b79a155ac2fce78b35bc6"             ];      key g_kOwner;        // Store the owner key due the object can be deeded to land group.// Like llOverMyLand(), but it work if land is not mine. Needed when testing.integer CheckIfSameParcel(vector vPos) {        key kHere = llList2Key(llGetParcelDetails(llGetPos(), [ PARCEL_DETAILS_ID ]), 0);    key kWhere = llList2Key(llGetParcelDetails(vPos, [ PARCEL_DETAILS_ID ]), 0);        return (kHere == kWhere);    } // CheckIfSameParcelBanIfHere(key kOwnerCages) {        if (llOverMyLand(kOwnerCages) == TRUE) {                    string sName = llKey2Name(kOwnerCages);        llInstantMessage(kOwnerCages, "Sorry Mr " + sName + ". You rezzed an object named '..::ExDepart::.. Gift Package 2012'. That object is a anoyning spammer. Plase, remove from your inventory that object..");                llTeleportAgentHome(kOwnerCages);        llAddToLandBanList(kOwnerCages, HOURS_BAN_TIME);                llInstantMessage(g_kOwner, sName + " (" + (string) kOwnerCages + ") has been sent to its house , due to spam activity.");        //llShout(0, sName + " has been sent to its house , due to spam activity.");                } // if    } // BanIfHeredefault {        state_entry() {                g_kOwner = llGetOwner();           llSensorRepeat(CAGE_NAME, NULL_KEY, PASSIVE | ACTIVE, RADIUS, PI, TIME);            } // state_entry        on_rez(integer start_param) {                llResetScript();            } // on_rez    sensor(integer total_number) {                integer iCont;        for (iCont = 0; iCont < total_number; iCont++) {                    string sObjeto = llDetectedName(iCont);            key id = llDetectedKey(iCont);                        if (CheckIfSameParcel(llDetectedPos(iCont)) == TRUE) {                                list lDetails = llGetObjectDetails(id, [OBJECT_CREATOR]);                                key kObjectCreator = llList2Key(lDetails, 0);                                integer iCreatorCount;                integer iLength = llGetListLength(lCreatorsMD5Key);                                for (iCreatorCount = 0; iCreatorCount < iLength; iCreatorCount++) {                                        key kCreator = llList2Key(lCreatorsMD5Key, iCreatorCount);                    if (kCreator == llMD5String((string) kObjectCreator, 0)) {                        BanIfHere(llGetOwnerKey(id));                        iCreatorCount = iLength;                    } // if                } // for            } // if                    } // for        } // sensor        no_sensor() {    } // no_sensor    } // default