>I don't want this kind of trash mailed to me! I'm here for lookups, not >advertisements! Stop it! This did NOT actually come to you from NCROOTS. Here's what Tim Pierce of rootsweb had to say about this one last week. I'm forwarding a copy that was originally posted on Quaker-Roots, together with the comments of the list manager there, Cheska Wheatley: >The following message is provided from Tim Pierce, >the Rootsweb Listmaster. Please be assured that you >cannot catch a virus through one of the Rootsweb >lists although you may receive an email that appears >to be coming from a Rootsweb list. > >Please, no more virus discussions on the list. Continue >to be careful in opening any attachments you receive >from those you are not familiar with. > >============================ > >Hi, folks - > >We've had a lot of reports tonight about a virus being passed >around on RootsWeb lists. I have looked into these reports >and it does NOT appear that the viruses have actually been >sent through our lists. > >I've included a semi-technical explanation of what I have been >able to find out, for those of you who are curious. The only >important message here is that RootsWeb's lists are NOT the >source of recent virus reports. > >What seems to be happening is that the current flock of viruses >do the following things when they infect a new computer: > > * The virus sends a copy of itself to everyone in the > computer's address book; > > * It forges its own return address to look like it was sent by > someone *else* in the address book; > > * and it uses the Subject line from a message that was recently > sent from that machine. > >So if an infected person sent mail to BUMBLEROTTER-L@rootsweb.com, >the virus might send out mail like this to someone else in the >victim's address book: > > From: BUMBLEROTTER-L@rootsweb.com > To: joe@example.com > Subject: [BUMBLEROTTER] looking for Fred and Wilma Bumblerotter > > ><http://stuart.messagemates.com/index.html>http://stuart.messagemates.com/i ndex.html > > Hypercool Happy New Year 2000 funny programs and animations... > We attached our recent animation from this site in our mail ! Check it >out ! > >Even though the mail never was sent to RootsWeb, the return address >is forged to make it appear as if it came from us. > >I will continue to work on figuring out if there is anything that >we can do about this; in the meantime, please assure any concerned >subscribers that subscribing to a RootsWeb list is not dangerous. :-) > >-- >Regards, >Tim Pierce >-- Elizabeth Harris state coordinator, NCGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/