At 10:02 AM 5/23/02 EDT, you wrote:
Hi,
I thought I'd ask the pros..after AOL Techs weren't much help really.
The last few days I have been getting emails from AOL members (who really
aren't sending them) with attachments. I never open them. Is there a way
to
format your email address on the GenWeb sites that make it more
difficult
for
the addresses to be harvested like I think they are?
The only common denominator I have with any of the people is genealogy. And
we don't know each other, never communicated and the only places we go is
through GenWeb or Ancestry Message Boards...
Thanks!
Anne
While the only common denominator you have with anyone may be genealogy - most
likely they also have common denominators with other folks on other subjects.
That said, those extend folks then have other folks and so on and so forth
so that after a few iterations your address could be in someone's address book
unbeknowst to you and if their machine becomes infected with the Klez
virus, then
your name will be sent out as mail from them but appearing to come from you
making
the receivers angry with you.
On the receiving end the reverse happens in that you get mail from unknown
persons
with viruses attached - because someone you know has an infected machine -
doesn't
know it - but how one ever finds out where anything comes from in this
situation is
outside my scope of knowledge. Suffice it to say there are a few
recommendations I
can make regarding this situation.
1 - make sure your virus definitions are up to date
2 - if you can, preview your mail before downloading it
3 - if you have Virus Express as your email client (Outlook Express) find some
other client OR download every patch available for OE and install them.
4 - if you used OE - change your settings so that emails don't auto open
when you
mouse over them.
5 - never open an attachment unless you are expecting it and then only
after you've
run your virus program against it. If the attachment has a .exe, .bat,
.scr, .pif
it's a good bet it's not a nice attachment.
It's a mean nasty world out there when folks who create viruses don't have
something
better to do.
Good luck!
Tim