In a message dated 6/28/03 3:06:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time, dunk1432@swbell.net writes: > Question for the list......I was under the impression that virus' couldn't > be > transmitted from the rootsweb lists, that they were "caught" before they > could go > out. Is it possible to get a virus from a message sent to the list? > > Carol Lopez wrote: > > >I received three messages-good thing I have Norton-they all had a Hawaii > virus > >from this list-I deleted before I could get the sender name > A virus can't be transmitted in a plain text e-mail, and all list e-mail is sent out as plain text by RW. However, many of the current viruses can change the sender's name so that it appears to be from someone that you get mail from, e.g., a RootsWeb list. If you think you got a virus this way, look carefully at the header information, which will show the exact routing information. In a legitimate RW message, the header should include a line like "Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [207.40.200.41]) by ...". A forged message will have some other origin. The bottom line seems to be that, if a list subscriber gets infected, that virus may send out e-mails that appear to come from a list that the infected computer is subscribed to. But, if there's an attachment, it didn't come from RW. Carol did the right thing. Keep your AV software up-to-date, and delete suspicious messages. Wilson DeCamp Vienna, VA