Is this a virus?

[Grizz2]

Hi all,
I hope this is the right place for this question. I usually hang out in the vb forum so you can let me know if it needs to go somewhere else.
Anyway I got one of those forwarded emails today with about a hundred recipients and it had 5 attachments. I have Norton installed and the email was scanned. I also didnt open any of the attachments. Generally I delete these emails as soon as I see them but this one wont let me delete or move it. It also made it where I cant delete any other messages. I can move them to the Trash but can't delete.
I did a search of files that were modified in the last day and it came up with 447 files. Other than the email delete problem, I haven't noticed anything thing else but, I dont know if its doing anything transparently (like stealing passwords)
If anyone has any info on how to get rid of this email & attachments or know anything about it, I would appreciate the input.
Thanks
Chuck

[jim mcnamara]

Get the latest signature file for your anti-virus software. Run it against the entire disk - all file types.

You do have a problem.

[Grizz2]

Thanks Jim,
I'll do that right now. I ended up having to delete my Inbox, Trash, and Sent folders to get everything working again. Of course this doesnt mean that it's gone so I appreciate the info. Just so Everyone knows, the subject line of this email was "Fwd: Keep on Wishin!!" I must have gotten on somebodies hit list because this morning I received 2 more with the subject "Fwd: Luv" even though I set up my email to filter forwarded messages. I,ve changed it to not download any email that has attachments so I'll have to see if that works.
Thanks again.
Chuck

[Behemoth]

is this a home machine or a work machine?

as Jim said, make sure your signature files are up to date, but also, update them again soon- say a weeks time. If its a new virus, it should be caught between now and next week, allowing you to purge your machine. In the meantime, be very careful what you do. make sure you back up any important data between now and then (and virus check anything suspicious when you retrieve it), and try to forewarn anybody that you email.

Or perhaps this is a little over-paranoid...??

[Grizz2]

Thanks for the reply.
Its a home machine and not networked to anything. I did figure out what it was doing though. I'd sent out one email yesterday before I discovered it. Luckily I mistyped the email address and it came back later as undeliverable. The strange thing is that the email that I had sent out, had one of the attachments (that came with the suspicious one from yesterday) attached to it.
I tested it today( sent to my own web based email) after deleting all my mail folders and it seems to be cured of secretly attaching files. I never opened any of the attached files so I don't know what else it might do. I updated Norton and scanned everything twice, and also searched for files that had been modified or created the day I received it and scanned them. Since Norton came back empty, I'm assuming it must be a new virus or worm.
One question. If I create a backup or restore disk now, that would be infected too wouldn't it?
Thanks again
Chuck

[jim mcnamara]

An emergency repair disk created now will be infected - if your virus scanner doesn't have the sig for the new problem.

You can do a warm re-install of the OS - but you'll have to re-apply all the patches you've downloaded since you first used your current version of the OS.