Replies to this message are sent to The Chevelle Mailing List ------------------------------------------------------------
Yes this does work. I have done something similar. The trick like you said is to have a name which becomes the first name in your address book. Putting in a fake email address causes the program to send you a notice in your email about undeliverable mail, which lets you know that you have a virus. This method does not stop your computer from becoming infected. It stops the virus from being sent to everyone in your address book, and lets you know that you have a virus. Now tell me why we pay Bill Gates so much money for his programs when his own engineers can not find a fix like this to stop viruses from being sent to everyone in an address book. Keith Cooper ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard M. Pruett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 6:31 PM Subject: [Chevelle-List] Computer idea for virus > > Replies to this message are sent to The Chevelle Mailing List > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > A few weeks back, there was some discussion about this. I received this memo > from a friend who is one of the computer guys for the State of Delaware. He > says it works on some but not all. > > > > 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/card" 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 > phony email address you entered (WormAlert). 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 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! > > Pretty slick huh? If everybody you know does this then you needn't ever > worry about opening mail from friends. Pass this on to all your friends > > > ----------------------------------------------------- > To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html > To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe please visit www.chevelles.net/list.html To start a new topic, send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
