OT: Nabbing the e-mail worm

[Slowly]

Think this will work?

 

Subject: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!

 

 

As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your e-mail address book, and sends itself to everyone in there thus infecting all your friends and associates.

 

This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system.

 

Here's what you do: First, open your address book and click on "new contact, just as you would do if you were adding a new friend to your list of e-mail addresses.

 

In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in "A". For the screen name, then for the e-mail address, type AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA.

 

Now, here's what you've done and why it works:

The "name" "A" will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But, when it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAAA it will be undeliverable because of the phony e-mail address you entered. If the

>first attempt fails (which it will because of the Phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected.

 

Here's the second great advantage of this method: If an e-mail cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an e-mail for you that an e-mail addressed to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAAA could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it!

 

Pretty slick huh? If everybody you know does this, then you need not ever worry about opening mail from friends.

 

Pass this on to all your friends

[Botch.]

Originally posted by Kcbass:

If everybody you know does this, then you need not ever worry about opening mail from friends.

Unfortunately, once the hackers know about it, there's probably a way to modify the worm the avoid the first address...

[Salyphus]

Or you could do the smart thing and get a Mac

[Steve LeBlanc]

Originally posted by Sal O' The Earth:

Or you could do the smart thing and get a Mac

did you have to?

[Salyphus]

Normally I would refrain, but it's just too true.

[Steve LeBlanc]

oh really?

 

http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=010126

 

even if it's M-Audio's fault...the driver and install/uninstall problems these dudes are having would be enough for me to consider selling the Mac

 

 

but yeah for email stuff mac is great! heh

[Salyphus]

Nah, there is no there there, sorry.

[Rim]

Originally posted by Kcbass:

Think this will work?

No.

 

Now, here's what you've done and why it works:

The "name" "A" will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But, when it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAAA it will be undeliverable because of the phony e-mail address you entered. If the

>first attempt fails (which it will because of the Phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected.

E-mail worms do not wait for a successful e-mail attempt before continuing. Worms often e-mail to all addresses it finds and don't care whether the e-mail address is valid or not.