[luau] Windows hoaxes?

[Brandon Jasper]

On 11/19/02 7:10 AM, "Mike Lui" <luim at hawaii.edu> wrote:

Unfortunately this won't work on many of the newer worms that will send an
email to everyone in your address book anyway.  Its all in the way it's
coded, and only a fool will let the worm stop on an bad address.  They will
tell it to send itself to everyone regardless of a few bad attempts.

> Hi all,
> 
> 1. Any truth?
> 2. If it works, then it should work under any platform email client set
> up?
> 
> Mike
> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> Subject: FW: Thwarting email viruses
> 
> 
> Here's a computer trick that's really ingenious in it 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
> address"
> 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.
> In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address,
> 
> type in WormAlert at somewhere.com. Then complete everything by clicking
> add,
> enter, OK, etc.
> 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 itself to AAAAAAA, it will be undeliverable because of the
> 
> phony email address you entered (WormAlert at somewhere.com). 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 Inbox almost
> immediately.
> Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email
> addressed to WormAlert at somewhere.com 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 needn't ever
> 
> worry about opening mail from friends. Pass this on to all your friends.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> LUAU mailing list
> LUAU at videl.ics.hawaii.edu
> http://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/luau