Virus?

I was opening a box in a sandbox area. I'm not sure if it was the animation box, or one for hair. But when I went to copy it (by the way i'm a newbie) all of a sudden this really horrible message about jewish people came up. And then pictures came flooding in of two old men in there underwear. Have I been hacked? How do I fix this? And most importantly, what just happened to me? Does it happen often?
Thanks, Jules

Hi Jules, welcome to the forums, and to SL!

The good news is that it is not a virus! Your account has not been hacked in any way. This is called "griefing" -- essentially these are practical jokes played on hapless passersby by idiots (often RL teenagers). It happens with some regularity in sandboxes, and probably has nothing at all to do with the box you were opening.

The Jewish folks chat spam is generated by an object someone ELSE rezzed. The textures also are sent by someone else's obnoxious object. The way to avoid this is first:

-- leave the sandbox
-- find some other place to open boxes.

May I suggest a place called NCI (New Citizens, Incorporated?). You can find it in search - they have a small sandbox in their Kuula location which is near a few nice things:

-- One of the best collections of freebies in SL
-- The big display board of their schedule of inworld classes on anything from how to go to a party to how to build an airplane
-- Helpful mentor-type people. Just ask a question in chat, there will nearly always be an NCI helper around to answer.

We here in the forums also have an inworld hangout and group that you might like. The hangout is in the lower right of the sim called Allana. To talk to group members any time, join the group "The Forum Cartel", and start a chat session with the group. (Well, any time that group chat happens to be working, it is very buggy lately).

When you open a box and copy it to your inventory - textures, notecards, and landmarks will open automatically as they are copied over. Sounds like a horrible box you got there, but... it sounds like it's just the pictures and a notecard from that box that you were seeing.

Chances are they will still be in your inventory (the notecard in the notecards folder and the pictures in the "textures" folder). Just delete them.

There are things that can happen in SL that can really freak you out, make your life a pain for a minute or two, or crash you to your desktop - but there are, thankfully, very few if any things going around that have a lasting effect as a virus would.

--added-- Niko's message was so much better than mine, but I'll leave this here just so you know I was thinkin' of ya. lol Have fun in SL!

I really appreciate the replies and I'm so glad I can still play!! Thanks for putting my mind at ease. The nicest people are here, gotta love it. And although Rygel's answer was very informative, both replies as a whole help. Seeing from different people's perspective is always helpful I think. Thanks again.
Peace, Jules

(psssst, Rygel. He's very nice, isn't he?)