Antivirus tip!

[Randi]

I had this tip recenly and think it is brilliant, so I thought I would pass it on to everyboby

It has been estimated that 1 in 300 emails contains a virus. Most of these viruses spread by automatically sending themselves to each of the contacts in the MS Outlook Address Book - the worst sort of chain letter. These viruses infect systems, clog up mail boxes and slow down servers and internet connections. Who among us doesn't know someone who has experienced the embarrassment of unknowingly spreading a computer virus via their email address book?

It's time to STOP this from happening by TAKING CONTROL of your email program! For those who are unaware, many computer viruses spread themselves by sending themselves to everyone in your address book. Imagine how you would feel if you were unknowingly infected with a computer virus, and worse still, your friends, family, and business contacts were being targeted by your computer!

Well, if you want to avoid this sort of thing, here's a great tip: to avoid spreading computer viruses, create a contact in your email address book with the name 000 (zeros) with no email address in the details. This contact will then show up as your first contact. If a virus attempts to do a "send all" on your contact list, your PC will put up an error message saying that:

"The Message could not be sent. One or more recipients do not have an e-mail address. Please check your Address Book and make sure all the recipients have a valid e-mail address."

You click on OK and the offending (virus) message would not have been sent to anyone. Of course no changes have been made to your original contacts list. The offending (virus) message may then be automatically stored in your "Drafts" or "Outbox" folder. Go in there and delete the offending message. The problem is solved and the virus is not spread.

This tip won't prevent YOU from getting any viruses (you have to scan those attachments yourself before opening them to do that), but it will stop those viruses from latching onto your address book and sending itself out to others.
Note: this only applies to MS Outlook (Express) users.

[Karen]

Hi, folks. Normally I'd delete the thread, but some of you have already seen it, so you should know that this is actually not true.

Thanks, Randi, I'm sure you didn't know, and were only trying to help protect other people, but this method won't work, despite the convincing text.

The following is from one "hoax an rumor debunking site," http://www.truthorfiction.com

Add An Entry Named !0000 or AAAAAA to Your Address book To Avoid Spreading Viruses is Fiction!

Summary of eRumor This message includes a tip to help avoid spreading viruses. Since many viruses automatically email themselves to people in your address book, create a new entry that will foil the attempt. Give the new entry the name of !0000 or AAAAAA and do not put any email address in the entry. That way it will be the first in the address book. When a virus tries to send itself to every address, it won't get very far because the familiar error message will appear that says it could not be sent because of either a missing email address or a bad address.


The Truth The virus experts we have checked with say this piece of simplistic advice did not come from anyone who knows about viruses and that it should not be relied upon. Many viruses will send themselves to any valid email addresses that are found in the address book regardless of whether there are also invalid entries.

Many computer owners have tested the "!0000" suggestion by creating an email that is addressed to several recipients, including the "!0000" entry. The progress of the email will be halted because one of the intended recipients does not have a valid address. Self-propagating viruses, however, do not normally create a single email to a group of recipients that is halted if one of the email addresses is invalid. They create individual emails that are sent to one recipient at a time...therefore all the valid email addresses do receive the virus.

Also, some viruses such as the "SirCam" virus have their own email software included so they will not be using your email program or hindered by any of it's error detection or messages.

Sorry, folks, just keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, and don't click on any attachments from unknown sources, and you should be okay.

Yes, I receieve many attachments from unknown sources all the time - that's how people nominate their pets. I, however, am not affected by most common viruses - I'm on a Macintosh, so I'm safe, anyway!

[Randi]

Thank you Karen! No, I did not realize. So perhaps it's the best thing to delete the tread.

I'm on a PC myself (unfortunately) but my husband is on a Mac like you and he does not worry too much either ((I use it whenever he is not working on it)

They do go mostly for Microsoft products I believe.

Thanks for putting me right.