In a message dated 10/6/01 3:30:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time, cmacdee@excite.com writes: Dear Carolyn....I recived this from one of my other Lists, and I hope it will help all....it did work for me.....Becky Recently a friend sent me the following and since then I have circulated it to a number of friends who say it works. No guarantee here folks but any help to stop worm virus attacks suits me just fine. Information to stop virus. Here's a computer trick that's really ingenious in its simplicity. As you know when/if a 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 will not 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 the worm has gotten into your system. Here's what you do; 1) First, open your address book and click on "new contact" just as you would do if you were adding a new friend. 2) In the window were you would type your friend's first name type in !000 (that is an exclamation mark plus three zeros) 3) In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address type in Worm Alert. 4) Complete everything by clicking "add", "enter", and "ok". Now here is what you have done and why it works: the name !000 will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This is where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But - when it try's to send itself to !000 it will be undeliverable because of the phoney Email address you entered (Worm Alert). If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phoney Email address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected. The ***second great advantage*** of this method is that if an Email can not be delivered you will be notified of this in your INBOX almost immediately. Thus if you get an Email telling you that an Email addressed to Worm Alert could not be delivered you know right away that you have a worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it. Pretty slick. Friends have tested it and say it works just fine.