[OT] Virus bombardment

Glad that you are practicing safe mail and news habits. If everybody did this, plagues like SWEN would never get off the ground.

Virus scanning, though, does nothing to keep you from getting hit. What it does do is keep you from propagating the worm to other people.

No, just chance. There are several other groups reporting the same phenomenon, not even englisch language groups (at.gesellschaft.recht, de.etc.sprache.deutsch etc.).

M.

Hi Mike,

I had the same problem but now use "SpamInteceptor" that catches the lot ! It costs me $3 a month but its good value !

Check it out at

Cheers !

Ian

When it comes to usenet - I use a totally fictitious return address - I figure that if anyone want to contact me direct - they will return post on the ng.

And although I am no Bill Gates fan - I continue to use Outlook Express as my newsreader (on two separate ISPs) but use Norton as my antivirus - and the inbuilt MS XP Firewall and have no problems.

Oh yes - and open no (that is ZERO) attachments - not even from my mother or lover!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I am getting nil (yes again , ZERO) spam.

Lord St.Helier (Using this nonsensical return email address - but who is enjoying the last drop of a 1990 Trimbach "Ribeaupierre" Gewurztraminer with BBQd chicken breast and salad on a gorgeous spring evening in NZ - just for the benefit of those northern hemispheroids heading towards winter!!!!!)

When I switched ISP's a few months ago and had to change my primary e-mail address, I decided to be come very protective of it and use it only with friends and companies that I believe to be reputable. I have received the bogus Microsoft messages twice, probably from a friend who didn't know that he or she had sent it. My Norton anti-virus program caught both of them.

This is in contrast to the Yahoo e-mail account that I use solely for posting in newsgroups (effectively AFW, which is the only one I currently subscribe to). It has been bombarded with hundreds of these messages. Every time I look at it, there is a note telling me that I have exceeded my allowed mailbox capacity. Fortunately, I don't have to download them and a few clicks deletes them all.

Vino

Vino wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Here's a tip for Yahoo: go to Mail Options, Block Addresses. Add the following(one at a time): microsoft.com bulletin.msdn.com updates.msdn.com puremail.com netmail.com newsletters.com

If you do this, many of the virus-generated messages will be deleted, and not even reach your Bulk or Trash folders. And you can add a lot more addresses to block than you can filter! HTH! deiwine

I have about 10 e-mail addreses. One that I use for posting in NGs is kept full and is the one you see that redirects you to Yahoo mail if you make the change instructed. This is on a MSNTV box that can not catch a virus - it does not use a HD and depends on remote Microsoft computers. The MSNTV box however can forward a virus attachment to a computer. The other posts are made through Google groups using either my computer or the MSNTV box. The e-mail address used also is Yahoo mail.

I also have several other addresses that I use only for friends, business, etc. The two on msn.com on the computer are known only to a very few close relatives and friends. Likewise for my Netscape e-mail addresses. I have 5 browsers, and most offer e-mail. I never use the computer for posting to NGs directly - I go through Google with the Yahoo mail address. I also have very heavy filtering on the computer based e-mail accounts. Thus I get nearly no junk mail on the computer or MSNTV box - it nearly all ends up at Yahoo mail.

Since I post in several NGs and forums that are internatonal in scope, I get plenty of spam at Yahoo. I am using most of their blocks and filters, but still virus-related e-mails are increasing. Most are blocked or go to trash, but I have to go in and dump the junk about twice a day to avoid exceding the 6MB limit. If the volume of mail does not abate, I will just delete this e-mail account and open a new one. This has been my junk mail account for over 2 years, so I am apparently on many hard drives all over the world. Examination of the detailed headers reveal these virus e-mails are coming from nearly all over the world. The current ones average about 140K to 160K, so they can fill up a mail box fairly soon. There now is a large variety in the type of message received. Some even pose as sound file attachments.

My mailbox is always full to avoid spam. To contact me, erase snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net from my email address. Then add snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com . I do not check this box every day, so post if you need a quick response.