For the Techies: Anyone know what 35c.png is?

[sheehs1]

My daughter is getting married in May. Emails from the mother of the groom seem to have this file attached. What is interesting to me is that if I simply reply to her, it does not attach but if I forward it to someone else it does. It appears as an "attachment" on the forwarded email. This is the second time I've seen this.

When I click on it, a screen pops up with a smiley face. Yes, there is a smiley face embedded in her email.

I tested it sending myself an email with a smiley face. A 35c.png file did not attach....not in Yahoo.

Please tell me this is not a tracking mechanism.

Don't know if it is relevant or not but my daughter is marrying someone who is enlisted high level special forces.

 

[W2R]

png means that it is an image.

Lately there has been a lot of tracking cookie spam, with 1x1 pixel images embedded in it. This is not a 1x1 pixel image, since you saw a smilie face, but if I were you I'd download and run the free CCleaner software anyway. Can't do any harm.

CCleaner - Download.com

These 1x1 pixel images (web bugs) can also be used to tell if you read the e-mail or not, but who knows if there even is one.

 

[PaddyMac]

I find people add little image to their signatures, and these come across as images. You'll find the image in your email downloads folder, and can delete it. At that point, it should not be able to be forwarded to anyone else, since it's not available. Worse case a "missing image" icon will appear.

 

[sheehs1]

Thanks W2R and PaddyMac...I just found it odd that it did not attach if I reply directly to her. It only attaches when I forward her email....say to my daughter.

I was thinking png meant "pinging"

 

[Sirka]

Trojan?

png means that it is an image.

Lately there has been a lot of tracking cookie spam, with 1x1 pixel images embedded in it. This is not a 1x1 pixel image, since you saw a smilie face, but if I were you I'd download and run the free CCleaner software anyway. Can't do any harm.

CCleaner - Download.com

These 1x1 pixel images (web bugs) can also be used to tell if you read the e-mail or not, but who knows if there even is one.

+1
It could also be a Trojan on your computer. So I would try The Malwarebytes Free edition: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Download.com
It does a great job of cleanup - I use it myself when I am in suspicious.

 

[Sirka]

Attachments do not stay with email

Thanks W2R...I just find it odd that it did not attach if I reply directly to her. It only attaches when I forward her email....say to my daughter.

Regular attachments do not stay with email when replying - you have to forward them.

 

[W2R]

+1
It could also be a Trojan on your computer. So I would try The Malwarebytes Free edition: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Download.com
It does a great job of cleanup - I use it myself when I am in suspicious.

Good idea. I run both Malwarebytes and CCleaner quite frequently myself, usually one after the other. Both are excellent and free.

 

[sheehs1]

THanks Sirka...the last time this happened I got rid of it. Now to remember how I did that .

I have a Mac....

 

[W2R]

There is a version of CCleaner for the Mac, too. Go to Product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news - CNET and look under security downloads for the Mac.

 

[W2R]

Here's an interesting discussion of smilies malware on ehow. Did it look like this? Sounds like it is being sold to people.

What is Smiley Central Spyware? | eHow.com

 

[sheehs1]

W2R2, it was a smiley with sun glasses on. Thanks everyone...I suppose I just use the icons available to me thru Yahoo and don't go to the trouble of finding others.

I think it did attach to some of my other emails the last time she sent me one and I had to figure out how to get rid of it.

 

[mickj]

png stands for Png Not Gif

 

[pfleming]

png stands for Png Not Gif

Huh. I thought is stood for Portable Network Graphic(s)

 

[BigNick]

png stands for Png Not Gif

Huh. I thought is stood for Portable Network Graphic(s)

I think you missed mickj's cool recursive acronym joke.

PNG is a great format for images when you don't want to lose information. For example, if you're making a screenshot and you want it to appear exactly correct, use PNG rather than JPG. JPG is OK for photos where there's no true exact image anyway, but it (deliberately) blurs lines whereas PNG is faithful to the original.

 

[pfleming]

I think you missed mickj's cool recursive acronym joke.

PNG is a great format for images when you don't want to lose information. For example, if you're making a screenshot and you want it to appear exactly correct, use PNG rather than JPG. JPG is OK for photos where there's no true exact image anyway, but it (deliberately) blurs lines whereas PNG is faithful to the original.

That's one recursive acronym I hadn't seen before and I'm familiar with quite a few. I like png for its lossless quality but wonder how popular it really will become over time since GIF is now patent free.

 

[mh]

That's one recursive acronym I hadn't seen before and I'm familiar with quite a few. I like png for its lossless quality but wonder how popular it really will become over time since GIF is now patent free.

It's probably about as popular as it's ever going to get. It's been out in the wild for a long long time.