[or-roots] Virus/Spam Flood

[Kith-n-Kin]

Dear Cousins - those I know, and those I just haven't met yet:
 
Let me comment. My computer is protected within an inch of its life, and yet in the past week, several
items of concern have happened:
 
(1) I received an e-mail from myself to myself advertising products I (thank you) don't need. At the same
time, I was advised through "returned" e-mails that at least two other people to whom I had "sent" the
e-mail didn't exist. Makes you wonder who did get them, doesn't it?

(2) My husband received an e-mail addressed specifically to him, from a specific friend, with no subject
and an attachment of "fotos" -- a zip file.  Oops, this was a virus attachment. Didn't open it up, as my
'puter stopped it in its tracks.  I got probably 12 "notices" of malicious code being stopped by my
Norton.
 
There are programs that "phish" for addresses - our roots list-servs seem to be a good trolling ground.  
 
My advice is: If you receive a zip, exe, or bat file, or some music files, from anyone as an attachment,
FIRST e-mail the person and ask if s/he sent it.
 
Then, when you send e-mail, jokes, political statements, to your friends, *blind copy* everyone. DON'T put
anyone's address in the To or Cc boxes.  If, by chance you are on Juno or another ISP that doesn't allow
Bcc, either send separate e-mails to each recipient, or get another provider.
 
Get yourself a "spy catcher" -- I have both Spy Sweeper (courtesy of my ISP, AT&T) and Spy Bot (a
download, requests donation, I think).  You will be amazed how much "stuff" is on your drive, just from
doing simple surfing on the net.
 
I am positive that somewhere there are people, like yourselves, who are wondering who I am, and why I sent
them that ugly spam -- honest, twasn't me, folks.  Matter of fact, if you haven't had one or more of your
e-dentities stolen and forged, it probably only means you haven't been around long enough.
 
Well, that's all. I just suggest that you do what you can, don't have "unprotected internetting" and don't
get too concerned about all those fingers pointing your way.
 
Regards,
 
Pat (in Tucson)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/or-roots/attachments/20040727/9523840d/attachment.html>