When to dump a friend ...

[french frank]

... when they send on to you an email, advising you to pass on a warning to all your friends, family, pets, business contacts, the gym, the music club &c &c about a horrible computer virus that is worse than any other computer virus that has ever been discovered and for which there is no known remedy. It comes in an email and will burn up your entire hard disk, set fire to your house and destroy an entire city within 20 seconds.

My guess is I'm not the only one who has received a notification about 'Black Muslim in the White House' lately.

I use Hoax Slayer to check (even though I know it's a hoax without looking). But what do you do? Send the URL to the 'friend'? Quickly send to everyone on their list? Sigh and do nothing?

[johnb]

When I had this happen from a colleague (some years ago) I e-mailed him back explaining that it was a hoax, gave him the appropriate link to explain the hoax and suggested he inform the people he had previously alerted.

[Curalach]

Most of the time a quick Google tells you that it is a hoax that has been going the rounds for years.
I use "Reply All" to point that out to the perpetrator and everyone on his or her list.
I do wish people would Google before they pass these things on. It only takes a moment.

[french frank]

When I had this happen from a colleague (some years ago) I e-mailed him back explaining that it was a hoax, gave him the appropriate link to explain the hoax and suggested he inform the people he had previously alerted.

I more or less did that, though didn't think to suggest they should send out another email to all their friends.

I wonder how many people do pass these things on? What baffles me is how anyone could believe that the virus was 'only discovered yesterday afternoon' - and already news has reached them through their friend. It usually takes at least five years for the message to do the rounds, by which time McAfee or Symantec would probably have come up with a solution.

[Don Petter]

What annoys me is that these people often send the email to an open list of all recipients, so any of these subsequently getting the wrong sort of virus (is there a right sort?) could give it your email address to play with.

[Frances_iom]

My guess is I'm not the only one who has received a notification about 'Black Muslim in the White House' lately.

you will see many more suchover next 12 months - dirty tricks dept of the US far-right nutter's party.

I havehowever noticed a significant increase in spam sent via mailing lists - probably yet another bug in Microsoft software is being exploited (think which company allowed executable files in emails - just one of many stupidities) - often the list will also be sent to a collection point so the names can be harvested for future spam lists.

[Ventilhorn]

If I receive any email which includes a list of other recipients; unless it is from a family member with copy to other family members, I immediately email the sender informing them politely that I have no wish to receive "round Robin" messages and will always delete them completely as a matter of course; without even reading them. None of my email friends and aquaintances have ever shown any resentment.

I really would like to do the same with these silly animations that some people include in their messages but in that case, I read the message and then zapp it completely by keying Shift+Delete keys. This removes the item from my PC and does not simply move it to the "Deleted Items" box on Outlook Express.

VH

[salymap]

I had an multi email from a trusted MB friend, but it opened upthe worst Trojan virus BT man said he had seen.

Things are still not back to normal but am getting there, I hope.

[french frank]

I had an multi email from a trusted MB friend, but it opened upthe worst Trojan virus BT man said he had seen.

Things are still not back to normal but am getting there, I hope.

As I understand it, opening the email and reading it shouldn't be harmful. It's clicking on any kind of link within that email - a url or a file - that will bring trouble.

Once a friend's address book has been penetrated, you can't rely on any email you receive actually being from that person. I've had two emails lately ostensibly from people who probably have me listed in their address book. When the email is opened there will be a message like, 'Hey, this is amazing - thoroughly recommend it.' There will then be a link which you would be foolish to click on. Links will normally be spam, files may be something worse. Urgent requests for you to pass on a virus warning to all your family and friends - regardless of who it's from - will have originally come from a hoaxer. The chances that it's genuine are so minuscule as to be nil. Delete the message and don't pass it on. You wouldn't be stupid enough to open such a file even if you did get it, would you? . Other people must look after themselves.

It's up to you to keep your computer protected, not your family's or friends'.

[Serial_Apologist]

As I understand it, opening the email and reading it shouldn't be harmful. It's clicking on any kind of link within that email - a url or a file - that will bring trouble.

Once a friend's address book has been penetrated, you can't rely on any email you receive actually being from that person. I've had two emails lately ostensibly from people who probably have me listed in their address book. When the email is opened there will be a message like, 'Hey, this is amazing - thoroughly recommend it.' There will then be a link which you would be foolish to click on. Links will normally be spam, files may be something worse. Urgent requests for you to pass on a virus warning to all your family and friends - regardless of who it's from - will have originally come from a hoaxer. The chances that it's genuine are so minuscule as to be nil. Delete the message and don't pass it on. You wouldn't be stupid enough to open such a file even if you did get it, would you? . Other people must look after themselves.

It's up to you to keep your computer protected, not your family's or friends'.

That is probably right, FF. However, a couple of years ago, like saly I was beset with viruses which could only have originated from dodgy emails which I thought I had not clicked on, but merely deleted. Eventually my computer became totally infected and had to be replaced. A neighbour then advised me that, when receiving what might be a dodgy email, to avoid its contents appearing I should RIGHT click the email, and on the resulting pop up menu click on "Mark" and then right click once more "As Junk". On my computer such messages then go into the delete bucket, where I again delete by RIGHT clicking, thus avoiding the actual message appearing; and thus far this seems to have kept me safe.

S-A

[johnb]

As I understand it, opening the email and reading it shouldn't be harmful. It's clicking on any kind of link within that email - a url or a file - that will bring trouble.

I'm not sure that is entirely correct. As I understand it, when an e-mail includes images those images are downloaded separately when an e-mail is viewed (and an image be the size of a dot). That downloading informs the sender that your e-mail address is valid and active - not good for spam or malicious, etc, etc.

For this reason (amongst others), Microsoft Outlook has for some years had a default setting that images are not downloaded and viewed as part of the e-mail unless you specifically request it.

[Frances_iom]

On my computer such messages then go into the delete bucket, where I again delete by RIGHT clicking, thus avoiding the actual message appearing; and thus far this seems to have kept me safe.

S-A

get rid of Outlook (esp the cheap version included with domestic computers) - switch to Thunderbird + ensure no attachments are opened and any HTML (which can contain supposedly safe javascript) is not displayed.
For all other attachments if you can't immediately be sure, save as files and open with a non-Microsoft programme (eg Foxit for pdf, word doc reader for doc files) - because by various illegal means MS became and retains an effective monopoly (you didn't really think Bill Gates earned those billions honestly did you) you are seeing the computer equivalent of monoculture - a single bug(virus)can affect 70% or so of PC's - switching to a non-monoculture eg one of many Linux derivatives makes it less attractive to develop the bugs in the 1st place

[scottycelt]

I hate to say this, but the two worst offenders in my case for 'round-robin' e-mails are both relatives and ex-teachers .. ... one, in fact, an ex-headmaster.

I agree with the advice to get rid of Outlook and move over to Thunderbird which is much easier to set-up anyway. Also, why anyone still uses the bug-infested Internet Explorer these days instead of Firefox or Google Chrome is quite beyond my notoriously limited comprehension.

Mind you, I don't even use Windows these days. Viruses are almost unheard of in Linux systems and, no, don't worry you can get by without using the command line terminal (though using that can be the most efficient and fastest computer experience of all). Ubuntu Linux is free, takes about 15 mins to install, is wonderfully user-friendly, and you can download applications without using all those silly and costly CDs to install.

Right, that's quite enough self-satisfied smuggery from me for the moment ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Mind you, I don't even use Windows these days. Viruses are almost unheard of in Linux systems and, no, don't worry you can get by without using the command line terminal (though using that can be the most efficient and fastest computer experience of all). Ubuntu Linux is free, takes about 15 mins to install, is wonderfully user-friendly, and you can download applications without using all those silly and costly CDs to install.

Right, that's quite enough self-satisfied smuggery from me for the moment ...

For even more self-satisfied smuggery, I use RISCOS, the modern version of the brilliant operating system invented by Acorn Computers, who dumped computers in 1997 to make set-top boxes (Pace). It is possible to convert a viral Word document to EasyWriter on a RISCOS computer, and then export it back to Word, with viruses eliminated.

[scottycelt]

For even more self-satisfied smuggery, I use RISCOS, the modern version of the brilliant operating system invented by Acorn Computers, who dumped computers in 1997 to make set-top boxes (Pace). It is possible to convert a viral Word document to EasyWriter on a RISCOS computer, and then export it back to Word, with viruses eliminated.

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