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AntiVirus Help

Update from Bernard Donohue: FYI: You might want to take a look at the US Department of Energy's Hoaxbuster site in regard to the WormAlert trick you have posted. ...Your time would be much better spent installing a good antivirus program and keeping it updated. See: CIAC Malicious Code Hoax Warnings (01/17/2002)

Originally from Milt Gugenheim: This feature was also sent to us from several other BuildOrBuy Members. We hope this proves to be especially useful for LookOut, oops, OutLook Users! (11/11/2001)

Avoid spreading computer worms by creating a contact in your email address book as follows:

For Name, enter !000 (An exclamation mark followed by 3 zeros). In the window below where it prompts you to enter a new email address, type WormAlert. (If it tells you this is not a valid address just say yes to add it, or ok). Then complete everything by clicking add, enter, ok, etc.

Recap what we've done and why it works:

The "name" !000 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 !000, it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered (WormAlert). 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 could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it! Until the Worms get wise to this trick and go to number 2 on your List!