The following is a recent e-amil I rec'd. Is there any truth to this?
I learned a computer trick today that's really
ingenious in its simplicity.
As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets
into your computer it heads straight for you email
address book, and sends itself to everyone in
there, thus infecting all your friends and assicuates,
This trick won't keep the virus from getting
into your computer, but it will stop it from using your
address book to spread it further, and it will alert you
to the fact, that the worm has gotten into your system.
Here's what you do: first, open your address book and
click on "new contact". just as you would do if you were
adding a new friend to your list of email addresses. In
the window where you would type your friend's frist name, type in !000
(thats and exclamation mark followed
by 3 zeros). In the window below where it prompts you
to enter the new email address, type in WormAlert. Then
complete everything by clicking add, enter, ok, etc.
Now, here's what you've done and why it works:
The "name" !000 will be placed at the top of your address
book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to
send itself to all your friends. But when it tried to send itself to !000,
itwill be undeliverable
because of the phony email address you entered (WormAlert). If the first
attempt fails, (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes
no further
and your friends will not be infected. Here's the second
great advantage of this method: If an email cannot be delivered, you will be
notified of this in you InBox almosst immediately. Hense, if you ever get
an email telling you
that an email address to WormAlert could not be delivered, you know right
away that you have the worm viruse in your system. You can then take steps
to get rid of it! Pretty slick huh?
If everybody you know does this then you needn't ever worry about opening
mail from friends. Pass this on to all
your friends.
I learned a computer trick today that's really
ingenious in its simplicity.
As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets
into your computer it heads straight for you email
address book, and sends itself to everyone in
there, thus infecting all your friends and assicuates,
This trick won't keep the virus from getting
into your computer, but it will stop it from using your
address book to spread it further, and it will alert you
to the fact, that the worm has gotten into your system.
Here's what you do: first, open your address book and
click on "new contact". just as you would do if you were
adding a new friend to your list of email addresses. In
the window where you would type your friend's frist name, type in !000
(thats and exclamation mark followed
by 3 zeros). In the window below where it prompts you
to enter the new email address, type in WormAlert. Then
complete everything by clicking add, enter, ok, etc.
Now, here's what you've done and why it works:
The "name" !000 will be placed at the top of your address
book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to
send itself to all your friends. But when it tried to send itself to !000,
itwill be undeliverable
because of the phony email address you entered (WormAlert). If the first
attempt fails, (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes
no further
and your friends will not be infected. Here's the second
great advantage of this method: If an email cannot be delivered, you will be
notified of this in you InBox almosst immediately. Hense, if you ever get
an email telling you
that an email address to WormAlert could not be delivered, you know right
away that you have the worm viruse in your system. You can then take steps
to get rid of it! Pretty slick huh?
If everybody you know does this then you needn't ever worry about opening
mail from friends. Pass this on to all
your friends.
