A virus alert that works

[Pantelis Giamarellos]

Fellow listers,

I know it is completery off topic but it is so simple and effective that I
considered it would be useful for anyone to know.

QUOTE
----- Original Message -----

Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 9:42 AM
Subject: a virus alert that works


I am not one for sending e-mails regarding virus' particularly at a time
when there is an alert
but here is a computer trick 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 !000 (that's an exclamation mark followed by 3 zeros).  In the
window  below where it prompts you to enter the new email address, type in
WormAlert. Then complete everything by clicking add, enter, ok, etc.

Now, here's what you've done and why it works: the "name" !000 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 !000, it will be undeliverable because of the
bogus email address you entered (WormAlert).  If the first attempt fails
(which it will because of the phoney 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 Inbox almost immediately.



Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to
WormAlert 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!



I hope this helps to save you a lot of time and effort in the future.

Keith Hall

UNQUOTE

Take care
Pantelis