Listers: Although I'm not sure if the MAPI worm has hit our list yet, I have no doubt it will. I want to provide list subscribers with the FACTS and how to clean their computer of this worm, before it hits. Please do not worry! That's #1. It's a relatively harmless worm and it's easy to clean out of your system. Let me explain how it works, and what you can do to be sure you're protected and not infecting others. You may receive "replies" to various list mail in private email, each with an attachment, and each infected with a worm, W32.Badtrans.13312@mm Each message will quote your original message and at the bottom will say something like, "see the attachment", making it appear that the sender had replied with information. My McAfee Virus scanner does a great job of warning me, so I have not opened any attachments I have received through other lists. What I was actually sent was the W32.Badtrans.13312@mm worm. The W32.Badtrans.13312@mm is a MAPI worm that replies to all unread mails in your email message folders, and drops a backdoor Trojan Horse. What this means is that there are folks on lists who don't know they are infected. Someone posts a message to the list (any list). That message is sent to each subscriber. Any subscriber who is infected, will have their UNread mail replied to by the worm. Other than being a huge annoyance, this does not appear to be a malicious or destructive worm. Most lists have been hit. We have not been hit that I know of, but with as many subscribers as we have, I suspect we will be, if we haven't been already. Don't panic, just take precautions by first going to McAfee.com, (or Semantic for Norton Virus) and reading about the worm, and finding out how to check if you have it. Then if you don't have a good anti-virus program installed, get one! I have used McAfee since 1989, and am particularly partial to it. I now use it 'online'. It installs some parts of it's program on my computer over the internet. This is the part of the program that warns me if I am about to open something that contains a virus. I go to the McAfee site periodically and run their Virus Scan program directly from their site, where they check my entire computer for virus'....just in case. I suggest that everyone on the list go and read about this worm at McAfee, Symantec, or any other virus scanning software company that you like, and take steps to clean your computer if you are infected. Anyone who is on the internet should have virus protective software installed. Two sites I recommend highly are: http://www.mcafee.com Or http://www.symantec.com Please take precautions as this is an easy virus (worm) to clean up, but it is very annoying and, of course, is a worry to subscribers. Rootsweb doesn't allow for the sending of any attachments through the list, so if you so receive one that looks like it came from the SHAW-L, it didn't. Anne