Recent private e-mails I received

papa smurf37

New Member
HELLO:
If a moderator or anyone else on this forum has recently sent me a private e-mail message, I may have deleted same. My hard drive was trashed on my former computer by an e-mailed virus, so am now in the habit of deleting any e-mail which has no specific title and I've received a few of these untitled ones in the last 2 or 3 days. TTFN.....Tom :)
 

brakie

Active Member
Tom,Some one tried to zap me to with a virus..He/She/it failed. It did not get by my virus protection.Now like you if I do not know the sender it gets trashed...I have also been signed up on some xxxx sites by party(ies) unknown.Nothing like 15-18 xxxx e mails a day .:mad: :mad: . I do not need that type of filth. I don't join these types of sites and have no desire to and yet they say I am a member when I asked them to stop sending their filth to me...I have since(yesterday) blocked these e mails and so far today I have not recived any....
 
Hey Tom, you didn't delete that email from Publishers Clearing House, did you? They've been trying to get ahold of you about a delivery...:D
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Hey guys, I'm The Offical Corporate Virus Stomper at work (a.k.a. the sucker who works last cleaning up the mess!). The best thing you can do is don't run outlook and don't execute and attachments from anyone unless you know they sent it. Not unless you know them, Isaid unless you know they sent it. Like, if I sent an attachment to you, you would see I signed it the same way I always do: jon Then you would notice a comment that is NOT in broken english that says what the attachment is and why they sent it. If you are not sure, send a reply and ask if they sent it and what it is. Don't trust it if you think it's a harmless picture, a .jpg or .gif those can be executables in disguise. Don't trust it if you "know who sent it". People don't send viruses, viruses send themselves, disguised as your friends!

I should note, if you are on a network, this may include a cable modem or such, but primarley we are talkin' about corporate or university nets, do not have any open shares. What I mean by an open share, is ability for someone to write to some or all of your computers disk(s) without a password. In Windows, you can look at yourself in network neighborhood to see what you have shared. It will let you in without a password, so you have to go back in with windows exp or my computer or whatever and right click the shared resourse to look at sharing.

Antivirus software is useless unless yoiu keep it updated at least weekly. PITB. Better to just understand the enemy.

The other thing you can do is not forward any virus warnings. They are hoaxes. Always. If you insist on sending it, check it out first:

Hoax list

Real viruses are listed here.

Read a few of the details if you want to understand the enemy :D :D :D

Why not forward them?

Virus Hoaxes: Not Just Harmless Pranks
There are a lot of viruses out there. And then there are some viruses that aren't really out there at all. Hoax virus warning messages are more than mere annoyances. After repeatedly becoming alarmed, only to learn that there was no real virus, computer users may get into the habit of ignoring all virus warning messages, leaving them especially vulnerable to the next real, and truly destructive, virus. -- nai

OUCH! I twisted my ankle hopping off the soapbox

:D :D :D
 
We follow Jon's advise to the letter, if we do not know who the sender is then it is automatically delited. We keep a list near the computer of those who we correspond with and if you are not on the list it is not opened. One of our daughters kept sending us pictures that she gets sent to her form unknowns, some of them are just cute funny pictures but since the last time I had to have this thing cleaned, no way. For pictures, if I see there is an attachment I do not open it, I contact the sender, if I do not know them it gets deleted without contact, and want to know what the picture is, and where is it from, then we decide whether to open it or not. With ref to THE GUAGE, I do receive and send private emails, which I enjoy corresponding with others, but as previously stated. if I have not had one from u before I will contact u before I open it.
Thanks for the good advise and info Jon.. Ron..
 

jon-monon

Active Member
No prob., Ron. Anything I can do to reduce virus attacks anywhere is good for all concerned. I forgot to mention to those who don't know how to get rid of outlook:

Free Eudora 5.1

Mozilla is marketed by Netscape , but Iike Mozilla better. Both have built in e-mail.

I'm not sure if Opera has e-mail, but as a browser it rocks! Not the best on Linux, but I use it on 98 when I run windoze.

Of course you could go to somewhere like tucows and seaarch for 100's of free e-mail programs, which won't cost you anything. Did I mention they were free? :D :D :D I love free software. It's just how it should be.

There are two main reasons to avoid outlook. For one it's microsoft, software from that small (micro) , yet oh so soft (soft) company, we all love, the inventors of the blue screen of death. That alone might not be as important as the fact that because even if you love microsoft, everyone else hates it. Apperantly, virus authors hate it enough to write viruses that attack using the vulnerabilites and secutity holes built into outlook. They could pick on some of the same vulnerabilities in other programs, but they don't. The other reason, is that your attachments are saved in the same file as the messages. In Eudora, for example, it goes into the attach directory, so you can look at it there and see if it's really a .jpg, or if it's a .jpg.exe virus. This allows you to open it in a photo program with out clicking on it, so it won't execute.

If you refuse to leave the dark side, you should go to bills site (the electronic equivalent of selling your sole) and get the latest patches and updates and what have you and read all the security concerns for outlook. Also, very important that's VERY IMPORTANT, sorry to yell, but it's very important to turn off previewing or whatever it's called. Someone help me with the term and however to turn it off. It's that thingy that allows you to view without opening the mail or attachment and you get the virus before you even open it or have a chance to delete it, because outlook executes it for you. This violates rule #1 of viruses, you don't catch it unless you execute it. Now you can catch it if outlook executes it for you and you don't even know about it! Thanks Bill. It's never too late. You can be saved. Just come to the light... come to the light... it's warm... it's fuzzy... come to the light...
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
My opinion...People who write virus prgrams ought to be dragged into the street and beaten to a pulp by the people whose lives were messed up by their little prank. To me these people have a lot of time on there hands, and need to find something better to do with it. Get a life....stop messing with other peoples. Get a hobby...model railroading is fun.
But thats only my opinion....I could be wrong.
 

Vic

Active Member
More On Nasty Spam

You know, I've had all the big boys...AOL, Earthlink, and whoever, and was drowned in trash, garbage and filth but about a year ago I changed over to Juno/Netzero and I may have received 4 or 5 such pieces of junk. Wonder why that is??? For $9.95 a month I'm connected on a dialup at 52000 bps so I can't complain!:)
 

brakie

Active Member
I think the attemped virus attack on me was personal and done by a great fan of mine...My computer is pretty well protected against virus..My son keeps my computer updated on every thing.Seems every time I turn around he is telling me I need this or that and up grade this....Infact my son built this computer except for the monitor,tower and key board. :eek: All I had to do was buy some parts he did not have on hand...:D
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Hey vic I use netzero too, I only get on at 33.6 but that's what I used to get for $20. I had a local provider, then went to free altavista 2 or 3 or 4 years ago. Then I dumped the pay provider when I got confident. I used them and juno, until alta vista dried up. I got 48 K connects with them; fasted ever from home. I also used Kmart and others. Nothings free here so it's NZ for me!
 

Vic

Active Member
Hi Jon, I should have metioned .....I have copper phonelines from the house to the main trunk only about 900 ft away. From there on to the central office its all fiber optic and who knows what from there. Maybe thats the reason for the good connect.????? I dunno:D Least it works:D
 

Vic

Active Member
Sitting here bragging and what do I get? THE NIGERIAN SCAM LETTER!!!!.....No Wait!....Its been forward to me by my ex-wife!!! She wants to borrow 5 Grand so she can send 50 Grand to them and make millions....she's 5 grand short!!!....DANG! Better consider this....It just might be worth it!!:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by Vic
Sitting here bragging and what do I get? THE NIGERIAN SCAM LETTER!!!!.....No Wait!....Its been forward to me by my ex-wife!!! She wants to borrow 5 Grand so she can send 50 Grand to them and make millions....she's 5 grand short!!!....DANG! Better consider this....It just might be worth it!!:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Be careful, Vic, nobody knows for sure about the afterlife. You punishment and/or reward may be to live with her! :eek: :rolleyes: :D :mad: :( :eek: :D ;) :p :) :cool: :confused:

Wasn't sure which smiley was appropriate :D :D :D
 
Originally posted by jon-monon


Be careful, Vic, nobody knows for sure about the afterlife. You punishment and/or reward may be to live with her! :eek: :rolleyes: :D :mad: :( :eek: :D ;) :p :) :cool: :confused:


Oh c'mon Jon, it wouldn't be all that bad!... I saw her picture on the web page he linked us all to. I bet she CLEANS up nice...:D
 

jon-monon

Active Member
hehehe I was neutral, all the smilies cancel each other out and I said punishment and/or reward, indicating it could be either :D :D :D X or not, I'll tread lightly here...
 
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