Ask Me Help Desk

Ask Me Help Desk (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/forum.php)
-   Internet & the Web (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=177)
-   -   Protect Address Book. Can This Be True? (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=35034)

  • Sep 24, 2006, 08:32 PM
    CHAPPY1
    Protect Address Book. Can This Be True??

    Below is a e-mail I received from a friend today, sounds good, in fact to good to be true,maybe someone has more info,on this subject I checked"snopes", & hoaxbusters, they had nothing!!
    Here it is:
    [email protected]".

    Subject: email address book


    HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!
    I learned 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 "[email protected]".

    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 your friends.

    But, when it tries to send itself to [email protected], it will be undelivera ble 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 [email protected] 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.
  • Sep 24, 2006, 10:59 PM
    Curlyben
    Sorry to burst your bubble but this doesn't work!!
    Snopes does have it Right here.
    It's just another meaningless chain mail.
  • Sep 25, 2006, 12:03 AM
    CHAPPY1
    Thank you curlyben,
    No bubble busted as you see from my email. I said to good to be true... you just found it under snopes where I didn't, but I thank you, & I'm sure others will be thankful also... thats why people ask these questions... ain't it??
  • Sep 25, 2006, 06:01 AM
    ScottGem
    Actually this did work for a while with specific worms. But the worms got smarter.
  • Sep 25, 2006, 11:02 AM
    CHAPPY1
    To Scotgem, & Others,
    No I Think If Snopes Says It's Bogus, Then I Believe It's Bogus,& I Do Believe What You Say, The Worms Got Smarter,as The Worm Turn,guess That Makes Them Smarter
  • Sep 25, 2006, 11:38 AM
    ScottGem
    Its bogus because people tout it as infallible protection which isn't. But when the first worms came out that (Melissa I think) that replicated by sending a message to everyone in your address book, it did work for a bit.
  • Sep 26, 2006, 01:19 AM
    LTheobald
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ScottGem
    Its bogus because people tout it as infallible protection which isn't. But when the first worms came out that (Melissa I think) that replicated by sending a message to everyone in your address book, it did work for a bit.

    I'm with Scott here. I do believe it worked with some of the older worms. Like he said - the virus creators just changed their code to "fix" this.

  • All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:27 PM.