An Emailed Traffic Ticket From New York State Police- Fiction! & Possible Virus!
Summary of eRumor:
Email inboxes are being flooded with traffic citations from the New York State Police. The citations come with a zipped file attachment.
The Truth:
This is a hoax and the attachment could very likely be an infected virus so do not open it. The New York State Trooper posted a warning about this eRumor on their web site. Click for New York State Trooper warning.
The New York State Trooper site warned that the emails, which began circulating in August 2011, may appear with the subject header of “UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET” but these emails were not sent out by the law enforcement agency. They also said that, “The zip file is believed to contain a computer virus and is currently being analyzed by the State Police Computer Forensics Lab.”
TruthOrFiction.Com recently got such an email from an inquiring visitor and our virus protection software confirmed that the one we got contained a Trj/Ci.A virus. This infection is categorized as a Trojan, which could can engage infected computers in a variety of attacks and intrusions including screen logging, a method to steal personal data, account numbers and passwords. Most anti-virus software packages can intercept and remove this malware so this serves as a reminder to keep them up to date and running properly.
Sample of virus report on Uniform Traffic Ticket attachment received by TruthOrFiction.com on 10/14/11
updated 10/14/11