The content pretends to be an FBI Warning that you have been caught visiting "Illegal Websites."

The messages pretend to originate from the FBI (or CIA) that accuse you of visiting illegal Websites. These messages are unauthorized and arrive with an attachment containing a variant of the 'Sober' virus.

Here are two samples of the typical message:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have logged your IP-address on more than 40 illegal Websites.

Important: Please answer our questions!

The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,

M. John Stellford

Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2130

Washington, DC 20535

(202) 324-3000

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.

Important: Please answer our questions!

The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,

Steven Allison

++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-

++++ Office of Public Affairs

++++ Washington, D.C. 20505

++++ phone: (703) 482-0623

++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time

If you receive a message like this, don't panic. Just delete it.

The attachment contains a worm (virus) called Sober-K (or another variant of the same malicious file). Don't open it — it can harm your computer — just delete it.

Though this message and others similar to it purport to come from the FBI or CIA, and may even sport return addresses like This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , they were not authorized or sent by any government agency. This happened earlier this year, and the FBI issues a release about it:

FBI statement, February 22, 2005:

FBI ALERTS PUBLIC TO RECENT E-MAIL SCHEME

Emails purporting to come from FBI are phony Washington, D.C. -

The FBI today warned the public to avoid falling victim to an on-going mass email scheme wherein computer users receive unsolicited e-mails purportedly sent by the FBI. These scam e-mails tell the recipients that their Internet use has been monitored by the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center and that they have accessed illegal web sites. The emails then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer questions. The attachments contain a computer virus.

These emails did not come from the FBI. Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited emails to the public in this manner. Opening email attachments from an unknown sender is a risky and dangerous endeavor as such attachments frequently contain viruses that can infect the recipient’s computer. The FBI strongly encourages computer users not to open such attachments.

Remember: Always make sure your antivirus software is up to date and actively scanning your e-mail. Computerworks recommends Norton AntiVirus as the best commercial AV package. We are also very fond of Grisoft's AVG Free Antivirus.