Anti-Obama Virus Hits Home
Obama, as the conspiracy theorists see him, taken from an anti-Obama Website
I was pretty surprised when I got an e-mail this morning from a friend who’s a sophisticated figure in the local music scene. The e-mail amounts to a long conspiracy theory meant to suggest that Obama has questionable Muslim connections who may have funded his college tuition and other endeavors. Then I got the same e-mail today from a Fort Lewis-based sergeant I know serving in Iraq. It begins like this:
“Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. ‘Barry’ (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a ‘round the world’ trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father’s family. My question -- Where did he get the money for this trip?”
I had a hard time believing this paranoid rant came from the people I know and so I e-mailed them both to ask if they had sent it. I’m still waiting to hear from the sergeant but my friend in the music biz said absolutely not. Apparently it’s a virus (you can also find it on an array of Websites, including this one debunking it) and, in the last weeks of the election, it’s raiding the computers of some pretty different types of people.
15 comment(s)
John thomas says:
Wow, I still think no matter how you look at it, Obama is clearly the lesser of the two evils.
God help us all if McBush wins next month.
Jiff
www.privacy-center.ru.tc
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 9:34AM
Texas Koz says:
Caution. There is a virus being spread in an email with a subject line "Nude Palin Photos" Do not open the attachment as it may contain the virus. On a different note, there is also an email with an attachment entitled Nude Hillary Clinton Photos." Do not open the attachment as it may....contain nude photos of Hillary Clinton. =)
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 9:53AM
Dave Cortesi says:
Not a virus -- it would have been sent by a "botnet" computer, just like most spam email is sent these days. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet) Millions of PCs around the world are unwitting members of botnets, used by spammers and criminals for spamming and phishing. What you may have found is that someone against Obama has hired a spammer to get the message out.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:00AM
d says:
I'd be interested in seeing the entire email, for entertainment purposes. Pretty please?
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:05AM
Joss says:
www.filthyrichmond.com is a virtual STD
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:07AM
AC says:
I'm an email administrator for a large email provider. I have to agree with the previous comment -- it's HIGHLY UNLIKELY this is a new virus. Most new viruses keep a low profile, and join a botnet where they can accept remote instructions to send bulk email. That's probably a better investigation... check the IPs in the Received headers... very likely those spams came from ISPs totally unrelated to your friends. As some of us know, the From: address on any email can be forged with great ease. Someone simply needed to know your name, and his, to send out the spoof.
In any case, there's MONEY behind this campaign. Few malware writers are malicious anymore... most have gone to work for Russian and Turkish criminal gangs. They'll sell their spambot services to shady outfits around the globe.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:11AM
shriek says:
Let the digital war being
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:31AM
Mad Mike says:
Desperate times call for desperate measures, at least that is the mantra of the McCainites and his frantic followers. This latest stunt is just another icon on the icing of that cake.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:47AM
jackiebli says:
Well with head line like "Nude
Pictures Of Palin" I can only hope the only GOP types would open it!
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:59AM
jackiebli says:
Well with head line like "Nude
Pictures Of Palin" I can only hope the only GOP types would open it!
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 10:59AM
wtfobamaVOTE3rdPARTY says:
god damn you people and your 'lesser of 2 evils' crap!!!
evil is evil END OF STORY!
VOTE THIRD PARTY!
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 3:02PM
Winston Smith says:
The image at the top of this artcle is extremely offensive to many people.
I hope you'll consider removing it.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 11 2008 @ 6:06PM
politicians says:
What does the virus do - lie dormant for 20 years and then claim to be proactive and come to life - being the agent of change ?
Posted On: Sunday, Oct. 12 2008 @ 12:33PM
Dong mclovinstien says:
Its surprising that people actually take the time to bother making bogus emails such as this one. As if they'd ever actually sway a person one way or another.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 17 2008 @ 7:56AM
Howard says:
Obama has not been forthright in telling Americans who he is, who he has been associated with, or what he will do if elected. If the media had done its job in vetting Obama from the beginning ... and if 18 months ago Americans knew what they know today about Obama, he would never have made it this far. I would be willing to bet that there are still volumes that we don't know about Obama, and even more Obama is not telling us about what he would do once elected. We also don't know where much of his 600 million dollars in campaign contributions came from ... possibly foreign nationals. Obama's donations are literally enabling him to buy the Presidency of the United States. And then there's Acorn, and voter fraud, which all seems to be favoring Obama. A socialistic agenda will ruin America ... whose 200+ year capitalistic ideology has made us the country where everyone wants to live ... even at risk of life and limb! It's pretty obvious that McCain loves America, not just in words, but in deeds that cost him dearly. I don't mind some changes, but changing our entire free enterprise system for socialism is NOT change I can believe in. I don't trust Obama. I think he will say or do anything to get elected. These are just some of the reasons I'm voting for McCain/Palin on November 4th.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 29 2008 @ 10:52AM