I would definitely consider this an unsafe file. PIF files are
survivors from the Windows 3.1 days. They are used to supply command
line parameters when launching an application. Because they call
executable files, they should be considered every bit as dangerous as an
.EXE, .COM, or .BAT file.
Robert K5PI
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Nat Heatwole
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 3:48 PM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Fishy E-Mail from ARRL Contest Robot
Fellow contesters,
Today I received an e-mail from the name "ARRL Contest robot" that was
titled "UNABLE TO PROCESS LOG SUBMISSION." The text of the e-mail went
as follows:
"(This is an automatic reply.)
Your message to dxphone@arrl.org could not be processed because it
did not contain a callsign in the email Subject: header. Please
resubmit your log to dxphone@arrl.org with an email Subject: header
that looks like this"
The e-mail had an attachment that was titled "LUETUT.XLS.pif" that was
72.3 KB large. I found this e-mail quite odd as I did not submit a log
for the past ARRL DX Phone nor did I make any contacts in the contest on
either mode. I hit the reply button to determine who the message really
came from and Outlook Express listed the sender as
unreplyable@alum.mit.edu. I would be willing to bet that the attachment
that came with this e-mail is a victor india radio uniform sugar (I
don't know if CQ-Contest will automatically bounce messages that have
that work in them, hence when I am spelling it out) or something equally
mischivious. Norton, however, did not raise a complaint regarding the
message.
The e-mail message was also sent to many other parties including many
contesters currently subscribed to this list (WN6K, WM5R, K1TTT, NQ4I,
KR7X, K4OJ, WD4AHZ, KR6X, W7WHY, WW3S, among others). I don't know what
this message is all about, but I would encourage anyone who gets this or
a similiar message to delete it immediately. There was a thread on the
PVRC reflector recently about fishy e-mails coming from a supposed "ARRL
robot" and this message may well be part of the same clan. Whatever this
is, it's no normal victor india radio uniform sugar; it came from
someone familiar with contesting, contesters, and CQ-Contest, perhaps
even someone subscribed to CQ-Contest and I felt that everyone on the
list should be made aware of this.
73, Nat, WZ3AR
<nat@ajheatwole.com>
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