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canonbal
16th March 2007, 02:53 PM
Sorry about this I posted it in general woodwork because I didn't scroll down far enough, anyhow I think I have it right this time.




HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!

I learned a computer trick today that's really ingenious in its simplicity. As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your email 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 email addresses.

In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in "A".

For the screen name or email address, type " [email protected] ".

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 [email protected] , it will be undeliverable because of the phony email 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 email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to [email protected] 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

:-

Cliff Rogers
16th March 2007, 03:17 PM
Urban Myth. :rolleyes:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.htm

Groggy
16th March 2007, 04:18 PM
Anything that contains "pass this on to all your friends" is an Irish virus. Think about it, to protect an email being sent to all your friends you have to SEND an email to all your friends. It's not just an Irish virus, it is a lazy one :rolleyes: .

Here's a better tip:

Go into your email filters and put a filter that, if the email contains "send to all your friends", deletes the email and blocks the sender. If you like, respond to the sender telling them why they have been blocked.

Skew ChiDAMN!!
16th March 2007, 05:05 PM
'Sides, my main priority is to stop viruses (virii? Virum? vira?) from getting onto my computer, stopping one from spreading to others is really only a secondary concern...

watson
16th March 2007, 07:18 PM
Ahhh!! Macintosh......I love you!

Regards,
Noel

joe greiner
16th March 2007, 10:02 PM
Even if it were true, a secret weapon only works once. How long do you think it would take the enemy to develop a workaround?

Joe

watson
16th March 2007, 10:17 PM
I reckon that the enemy are really on to the PC structure and can do really bad things to those machines.
I've heard interviews with virus writers and virus protectors, and the virus writers don't get IT jobs (even after they're out of gaol) no matter how much damage they've caused because they write really crude code.
Again I state, I love my Macintosh!!
Regards,
Noel

watson
16th March 2007, 10:25 PM
And I love Drizabones and I'm even a bit partial to Galoshes too!
Drizabone is a bit of a worry though, as it just hangs around until the weather is really bad.
Last time I wore it, about 20 little bats come out of the sleeves.
OOps

Regards,
Noel

Cliff Rogers
17th March 2007, 12:17 AM
And I love Drizabones and I'm even a bit partial to Galoshes too!
Drizabone is a bit of a worry though, as it just hangs around until the weather is really bad.
Last time I wore it, about 20 little bats come out of the sleeves.
OOps
....

Hey you blokes.... I found where they hid the Friday thread...... :D