Fiverr Forum

A buyer sent me a virus!

#1

Ok so I received a message today on my Fiverr inbox. It said “Halo! I want order servc.
I need to do this quickly.
Pls see task.
tomorrow will be ready??”

I downloaded it and it was a ZIP file. I have a very deep knowledge of information security ( I have a masters in IT security) and when I opened the Zip file, I could guess it was a virus. It contained a word document and some instructions on how to run the zip file.

My antivirus caught a file trying to remotely control my computer. I took care of it, scanned my system and cleared any trace of the files.

I imagine what could have happened, I try to backup my client files regularly and I also have a backup laptop, just in case. Please take note of this and always be careful when opening files, I have reported the Seller already.

Cheers!

2 Likes
#2

could’ve tried to add you to his botnet cluster lucky you but you could have avoided that by just previewing the zip file and not extracting it.

#3

These malicious people will never stop, ever! :angry:

Reminds me of a link I received 7 years ago, with a Java applet (at that time many browsers had Java applets enabled), and after I opened it thinking it was their site I saw nothing. Next morning, my account was missing $200 of earnings, Fiverr blocked my account until I verified it with them, and maybe from there the general account verifications had started.

And no, Fiverr didn’t give me those earnings back - I guess it was my fault after all for clicking on that link :frowning:

1 Like
#4

True, I was only curious. I also wanted to inspect the bat file. My bad

#5

do not example attachments for instructions, there is a text field box area for that.

#6

Wow $200? That will hurt a lot. Oh mine, sorry to hear that!

1 Like
#7

My kind of gigs require loads of attachments and some attach instructions to messages and leave a short note.

This is the first of its kind.

I think fiverr should implement some sort of antivirus for attachments, that might help a bit for ignorant sellers.

It hurts to lose your hard earned money

1 Like
#8

Goodness, I’m so sorry you experienced something like that!

Luckily, none of my current gigs require attachment files, but I feel for those of you that run gigs that do happen to require downloading attachments. Unfortunately, there are malicious people everywhere. :frowning: Luckily, you were savvy enough to take care of the problem before it escalated! Kudos.

#9

It also happened to me but my google chrome blocked the .zip file from downloading…

#10

i had the same experience three years ago. at that time i have a sort knowledge about internet. so the buyer had sent me a link to a website and i opened it without thinking twice. mmmm nothing informant in that site and i informed to buyer he didn’t not respond. and the next when i try to login to account here it says “you must login to access this page” lol that guy hacked into mail and my fiverr accounts. as i remember there was $390 cleared revenue and few $ to clear. i lost all of them and very valuable account with 300 feed backs :confused:
then my friend told me that was a phishing :frowning:

#11

Happened with me few movements ago.What Should i do? I marked is as unspam

#12

You were sent a virus?

#13

What if they uploaded it in BR section? many will get that virus

#14

If you think about it that way, yeah, we’d have to be careful but I haven’t heard of something like this happening and I hope nothing like this would happen as well.

#15

It happened to me a couple of times when I used BR - I downloaded the attachments and one was a .doc file with a nasty script, and another was a JPG image that had a virus in it, which luckily my AV caught it (who would’ve guessed that nowadays even regular images can hold viruses?! :roll_eyes: )

2 Likes
#16

Did you ask him why ? I think he is also a seller who jealous at you :grin: