I was emailes this today - seems OK to me but do you know otherwise?

 

 

>>Subject: Address Book Protection

>>Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:21:31 -0700

>>

>>

>> HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!

>>

>> I heard about 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.

>>

>> 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 email

>>addresses.

>>

>>In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in

>> "A".

>>

>> For the screen name or email address, type "AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA".

>>

>> Now, here's what you've done and why it works:

>>

>> The "name" "A" 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 our friends.

>>

>> But, when it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA, 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.

>>

>>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 AAAAAAA@AAA.AAAA 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.

>>

>> Pass this on to all your friends.

Done this about 18months ago after a virus sent out mesages to peolle in my address book, so far touch wood never happened again

smithy

It's a start but no guarantee. It assumes that the malicious code will start at the beginning of the address book, this may not always be the case. Sometimes they send to the first 50, sometimes at random, sometimes the whole lot.

 

However, every little helps.

 

 

Up to date virus protecting and a responsible ISP (who blocks SPAM and virus infected email content) is the most effective solution - apart from not using MicroShaft software that is ...

I don't believe for a second that that would work. Worms aren't consicous you whether or not the email address is valid, it doesn't wait to see if a message is unroutable before it sends the next. i might take 5 minutes, might take 5 hours to get the undeliverable message back, it's no gonna sit there thinking, "I wont send another incase that one doesn't get through" is it ???LOL :D:D:D:D. Hippy Worms LOL.

 

however on a side note it's a good idea to have something like this in your mobile phone with a invalid number as it's invariably the first nubmer in your phone book that you dial when the phone becomes unlocked in your pocket. :)