Hello OHHOLMES list, I received the following from another list's administrator. Thought all of you should know about it. I hope this list's administrator doesn't mind me posting this, but this evening's digest seems to suggest that this might be pertinent. Good luck!! Liz Davis North Bend, WA Searching for Parsons and Tarrh in Holmes and surrounding counties. The following is from RootsWeb staff regarding a recent report of a virus being sent through RootsWeb mailing lists. FYI - > 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 [email protected], > the virus might send out mail like this to someone else in the > victim's address book: > > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [BUMBLEROTTER] looking for Fred and Wilma Bumblerotter > > <http://stuart.messagemates.com/index.html>http://stuart.messagemates.com/in dex.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 > RootsWeb.com lead system admonsterator > and Chief Hacking Officer