And a good addition to this good advice is that the REAL worms and viruses don't come with a "warning" that's been forwarded around the world and back six hundred times! They just appear - and one of your contacts will advise you of it and warn you about it because they've been unlucky enough to get it themselves! Regards, Linda -----Original Message----- From: Dave Cannon [mailto:Davy.Cannon@bigfoot.com] Sent: 17 April 2001 01:09 To: WESSEX-PLUS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [WSX] Recent viruses and worms Hello All, Following the recent and ongoing problems with the "Badtrans" and "Magistrate" worms/viruses, and as a supplement to the good advice already posted on the various lists, the following points might be worth noting: (a) most virus alerts are hoaxes; (b) some, as we have learned recently, aren't hoaxes, and one could do worse than to make a point of ignoring or deleting all unexpected attachments, even from close friends, unless you have clarified with them that they have sent an attachment, and how many they sent; (c) never send an attachment yourself without making specific reference to it in the body of your e-mail. Make sure that your regular correspondents know that this is your practice, and encourage them to follow it themselves. We will never eradicate the virus problem, nor, unfortunately, the subhuman mentality which seems to find such behaviour entertaining, but a little bit of common sense and some good up-to-date anti-virus software will ensure that we are relatively inconvenienced by it. A regularly updated page, with links to all the latest information, can be found at: http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/splash/0,9700,6008986,00.html All the best, Davy Cannon Weymouth, Dorset ______________________________