Protect your address book from Viruses - Thoughts? (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

I got this email (as probably a lot of you have) and I wondered if you think this is a good idea? I realize it's just spam, but the suggestion seems plausible. Can you find any flaws in this rationale?

opening mail from friends. Pass this on to all friends.

So what do you think?

 

[Michael*K]

I think I'll stick with my Mac OS X Address Book. Haven't had a virus problem yet.

 

[DaveF]

Hoax. Ignore it and don't pass it on.

So says McAfee: http://vil.mcafee.com/sendMail.asp?virus_k=99213

See also http://www.theofficecompany.com/hoax_list.html# and click the "!0000 Trick" link or the "How to Protect Your Address Book" link.

 

[Scott L]

That's bs.. When my parents' computer got infected it sent emails to everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that was listed on the comp. This included email addresses that were in IE's cache, so it was emailing the admins of the BBS's I visit. Viruses today don't seem to limit themselves to the address book anymore.

 

[MarkHastings]

Dave, sure it's a Hoax, I realize it's just a spam email and I would NEVER pass it along to anyone, but that wasn't where I was going with it.

I was just taking the info for what it was and wondering how effective it would be? I mean, even McAfee says "This trick might work for some mass-mailing worms" so there is SOME validity to it, and I really can't see any harm it would do.


and Michael*K,
I'm with ya. I got this email on my Mac where I know that I'm safe from 99.9% of the viruses out there

 

[Tekara]

sure there is some validity to it, but I highly doubt that there are that many poor programers out there making virus's that crap out after a failed iteration in their programming.

I can't think of any reason why a virus maker would care enough to include a error check in their script. more than likely they would just make the virus go through everything without regard to where it's mailing itself.

 

[Cees Alons]

I have to agree with those who say it won't work at all.
The worm doesn't "know" the e-mail failed. It doesn't wait a proper period to get a "sent" or even "received" notice before it goes on, it just uses the whole (or part of) the address book to construct one or more outgoing mails. Rob is right.

Further more this sort of post essentially is a virus. It tries to multiplicate by having itself send to more people than it was before. It's just spread by humans (like natural viruses), not autonomously by the processor of your computer.

Cees

 

[MarkHastings]

Again, I realize that the email is SPAM and probably contained viruses (which is why I don't forward those things to anyone), but what about this part:

if you ever get an e-mail telling you that an e-mail addressed to AAAAAAA could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system.

That's a pretty neat trick.

 

[Tekara]

yes I do agree that getting back the reply saying that a wmail was sent to a dummy address is pretty good as a warning of a virus on your computer.

imho just use a web-based email service and remove any email services on your computer. . . can't ever think of how any adressbook viruii could get you that way