PayPal spoof e-mail virus spread slowing: expert

A virus that poses as an e-mail from online payment provider PayPal and tries to trick people into sending out credit card and social security numbers is slowing its spread, an anti-virus expert said.

The Mimail. J virus, which showed up on Monday, is rated a low risk but is significant because exposed information could be used to steal money from accounts or the victim's identity, said Craig Schmugar, a virus research engineer at Network Associates Inc.

There could be another variant of the virus, given that 10 have already been circulated since the original version first surfaced in August, he said.

The virus e-mail tells recipients that their accounts are about to expire unless they provide the information in a form included in an attachment. Once the information is sent, the victim receives a confirmation message that also looks like it comes from PayPal.

What made the virus notable was the fact that it combined a scam, spam and virus propagation, which is the ability to send itself to e-mail addresses harvested from a victim computer, he said.

Other e-mail scams that have tried to entice people to give up sensitive information have been merely spam e-mails and often they have the victim visit a Web site that looks like it is a legitimate site of the spoofed company, according to Schmugar.

Companies that have been spoofed include Amazon.com, eBay Inc., which owns PayPal, and Citibank.