Have you heard of this trip for worms? 1

[columbiavol]

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK I learned a computer trick today that's really
ingenious in it's simplicity. Just received it from a friend. As you may know, when / if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your e-mail address book, and sends itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates.

This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread 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 e-mail addresses. In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in AAAAAAA. Also use address AAAAAAA@a.aaa Now, here's what you've done and why it works: The name AAAAAAA 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 tries to send it self to AAAAAAA. It will be undeliverable because of the phony e-mail address you entered. 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 e-mail cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an e-mail telling you that an e-mail addressed to AAAAAAA could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it! Pretty slick, huh? If everybody you know does this then you need not ever worry about opening mail from friends.

 

[johnwm]

This idea was first de-bunked a couple of years ago, but it still keeps re-appearing!
Last week's issue of Woody's Email Essentials did an update on this nonsense (you can subscribe here: WEE@woodyswatch.com ) showing how it doesn't work!

(c)Woody's Email Essentials
QUOTE
<@ The old AAAAAAA address book hoax
It's doing the rounds again: A piece of nonsense which suggests you can stop worms propagating by adding a fake contact named AAAAAAA to your address book.

Don't believe it. It's a con wrapped up in techno-speak to make you think it's legit. Let's take a look at the whole thing in order to show you in just how many ways it is plain wrong:

&quot;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 your email address book, and sends itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates.

Partially true, so far. Some mass mailing worms do raid your email program in order to propagate. But many of them do not. Many of the current crop of worms contain their own SMTP server, so they can handle their own email sending without bothering your email program. They search your hard disk for email addresses wherever they lurk and use them to propagate.

This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system.

True, false, false. True, the trick won't stop your computer from getting infected. False, it won't stop the worm from using your address book to spread. False, it won't alert you to the fact you're infected.

Here's what you do: first, open your address book and click on &quot;new contact,&quot; 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 first name, type in AAAAAAA Same in space labeled screen name.

Now, here's what you've done and why it works: The &quot;name&quot; AAAAAAA 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.

Why would the worm start at the top of your address book? The worm will start wherever the virus writer has determined it will start. It might simply use all addresses beginning with 'M' or every third address, or take the addresses in the order they were originally entered into the address database. Worm writers don't abide by some set of rules which says &quot;Keepest thou thy worm in alphabetical order.&quot;

But, when it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA, it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered. 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.

Well, this might be the case if you're dealing with a truly dumb worm. But we haven't yet heard of any worms that are this dumb. All a worm needs to do is ignore the invalid address and move on to more juicy pickings in your address book, and that's what they do.

Here's the second great advantage of this method: If an email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to A could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it! Pretty slick huh?

It doesn't necessarily work that way. When or whether you get a &quot;bounced mail&quot; message depends on a whole lot of factors.

If everybody you know does this then you need not ever worry about opening mail from friends.&quot;

Don't you believe it! 1. It doesn't work. 2. Even if it did work, it would not ensure your mail is safe from other threats and attacks.

&quot;Pass this on to all your friends.&quot;

Please don't! But do let them know about Woody's Email Essentials, so they can get the full scoop on this and other email whoppers.>
ENDQUOTE







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[ianbla]

This would not work.

This is like saying that if you send out an email to your friends and one of the addresses is wrong it will fail on all the others, that is not the case, it will just carry on sending, it doesn't care about no deliverables

 

[SteveTheGeek]

VMyths has a story on it:

http://www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3&cat=Poor advice from non-experts

Just another intelligent-sounding (until you think about it) hoax circulating around.
-Steve

 

[manarth]

On the other hand, it might not be a bad idea to include YOUR email address in the address book you normally use - that way, (and assuming the virus emails itself to everyone in the address book, not just a random selection), you at least get an indication that something may have happened.

Not foolproof, but it will highlight some of the mail viruses.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Except... Since the last several major viruses that scraped address books have spoofed the sender address and also generally use their SMTP engine, you'll send the virus to yourself and not know if it came from you or someone else.
-Steve