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How to protect your email address book/account.

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NotSober

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I got this email from a good friend.
Thought I'd share it here.


How to protect your 'e-mail' address book/account.

A computer repairman says this is like having gold.
This is a good thing.
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.


When it tries to send itself to [email protected],

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 none of your friends will 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.
 
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Pretty slick :) Yes.

Thanks for sharing the trick :)
 
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great tip. thanks for sharing!

it's nice to see that at least some namepros members are trying to help others even when there is not direct monetary return.

Nixism Web Hosting Review (you'll need some kleenex while reading because the customer service at nixism is pretty sad)
 
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Thanks for sharing the trick and quality information.
 
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Thanks for the replies :)
Will post more handy tips/tricks as I get them.
 
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That's very handy...thanks for the tips!
 
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Well, I will try that out !
Seems to be good enough ! :D

- Digital -
 
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well,this is really a cool tips.thanks for sharing it.I'm going to try it right now.
 
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Thanks for sharing it with me buddy,keep posting more so that we could gain more knowledge from you........
 
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If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address),

The worm goes no further and none of your friends will be infected.

That's not true at all. Worms are a lot smarter than that. It will send it to everyone and those with legit emails will get the delivery.
 
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That's not true at all. Worms are a lot smarter than that. It will send it to everyone and those with legit emails will get the delivery.
i agree, worms are a lot smarter
it won't stop just because it gets a failure
it will try _every_ address in about 1 second
appreciate the thought but it seems like something for snopes.com
 
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That's not true at all. Worms are a lot smarter than that. It will send it to everyone and those with legit emails will get the delivery.

I've been using the method for about 10 years. actually, I have several "to self" emails salted into my address book. Never had a virus, so I don't know if it actually works, but it should.

Yes, a virus will go to all on your list simultaneously and won't give up on any failure. However, you might know by getting the bounce that the virus mail went from your email box. I say might because most viruses will also spoof the return address to keep those on the list uninformed. To make sure you get notification in this case, add a real address to yourself in the list. Make it something that will insure you get it notice at that address. It should be totally different than your regular email so the virus doesn't associate it with you. A gmail, hotmail, or yahoo mail address, or your work address, or a different mail on a domain you own.

You won't be able to stop the virus from getting out, but you may be able to contact your friends before they actually open it or click anything that appears to be from you or another entry in your address book. It should at least function as a red flag.
 
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Thanks for sharing. Ive been in fact having problems lately with my email account because its sending on its own spam emails to all of my contacts. Its pretty annoying. I just changed my password.
 
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