This sounds like a good idea so I thought I would forward it to you sheepers. Lucind. HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK! Here's 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," 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 AAAAAAA. Same in space labeled screen name. For email address enter AAAAAAA@A... Now, here's what you've done and why it works: The "name" AAAAAAA 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 AAAAAAA, it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered. 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 In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to AAAAAAA 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 need not ever worry about opening mail from friends. You may want to pass this on to all your friends. > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.456 / Virus Database: 256 - Release Date: 2/18/2003

It sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if it would really work. I send an e-mail message to about 60 people scattered all over North America every weekday evening (i.e., five days per week). The names and e-mail addresses of the subscribers are listed in a group in my Address Book. Occasionally, subscribers have balky servers at their end, or their e-mail address changes and they haven't notified me yet, etc. My e-mail server appears to send the outgoing message to every name in the group, regardless of whether all of the addresses are working or not. When I do encounter one that is not working, I eventually get a notice from my outgoing e-mail server; however, the rest of the list is not affected (both people ahead of the non-working address in the list and those that follow it). All of the messages to functioning addresses are delivered on schedule. I am using Microsoft Outlook XP (2002). It's entirely possible that other e-mail programs work differently. Nothing beats a good, up-to-date antivirus program to prevent problems with worms. I'm using Norton Antivirus (NAV), as part of Norton SystemWorks 2002 and have it set to scan ALL incoming e-mail messages. I update my list of virus definitions at least twice per week. None of my machines (at home or at work) have ever been infected by a virus, although some staff people at my office (a large urban university) have tried (inadvertently, of course :-)). As a further precaution, I NEVER open an attachment from a person that I don't know or don't trust. I use a Preview Pane to see what the base message is, then save the attachment (unopened) to a folder. Then I scan it with NAV before opening it. Sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't especially time consuming. Just thought I'd pass that along. Steve McA IBSSG -----Original Message----- From: Bonds [mailto:tabulam_bonds@dodo.com.au] Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 5:50 PM To: BLACKSHEEP-CHAT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [BSChat] HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK This sounds like a good idea so I thought I would forward it to you sheepers. Lucind. HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK! Here's 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," 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 AAAAAAA. Same in space labeled screen name. For email address enter AAAAAAA@A... Now, here's what you've done and why it works: The "name" AAAAAAA 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 AAAAAAA, it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered. 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 In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to AAAAAAA 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 need not ever worry about opening mail from friends. You may want to pass this on to all your friends. > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.456 / Virus Database: 256 - Release Date: 2/18/2003 ==== BLACKSHEEP-CHAT Mailing List ==== Unsubscribe from the list: Mailto:Blacksheep-Chat-L-request@rootsweb.com?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsub scribe ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237