List, Essentially the same thing Warren has said, but below is a post containing a "little" extra. Just thought you might be interested. Please save for future references to virus warnings. :-) Avery >Anton, this is another hoax you are passing. You can't get a virus from >an email message no matter what it is called. It has to be an >executable file not a text message. These kind of things come through >about once a month, particularly when the colleges are on break! > >Check out the Computer Virus Myths home page at >www.Kumite.com/myths/home.htm > >Good Luck, > >Warren ========================================================================== From: TOURBUS -- 24 APRIL 1997 VIRUSES IN E-MAILS?! -------------------- Is it just me, or has there been a FLOOD of virus warnings on the Net recently? I have received so many of these warnings over the past couple of weeks that I decided to write a "canned reply" so that I would be able to respond to all of these virus warnings. Wanna see my "Viruses in E-mails?" canned reply? Here you go! (And you are more than welcome to steal this if you want.) Thank you for your recent letter concerning e-mail-borne viruses. Unfortunately, most of the virus warnings floating around the Net right now are hoaxes. There are, however, two rules that you need to remember to be able to sort out the true virus warnings from the hoaxes, and to protect yourself from becoming infected with a virus or a Trojan horse: 1. Regular, plain-text e-mail letters -- the plain old vanilla e-mail letters (like this one) that you receive every day -- can *NOT* contain viruses or Trojan horses. Period. It does not matter what you may have heard from your friends, co-workers, newspaper, government, or religious leaders. Plain e-mail letters can not contain viruses or Trojan horses. It does not matter WHAT the subject line of the letter is -- "Good Times," "PenPal Greetings," "Deeyenda," "Irina," "AOL4FREE," "I AM A REALLY MEAN VIRUS AND I AM GOING TO EAT YOUR HARD DRIVE" -- plain text e-mail letters simply can not contain viruses or Trojan horses. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are either lying or are badly misinformed. 2. Files that are attached to e-mail letters -- like Lotus or Excel spreadsheet files and *especially* Microsoft Word files -- can, and probably do, contain viruses and Trojan horses. How can you protect yourself? VIRUS CHECK EVERY SINGLE ATTACHMENT THAT YOU RECEIVE THROUGH E- MAIL (AND EVERY SINGLE FILE THAT YOU DOWNLOAD FROM THE INTERNET). If your boss, best friend, worst enemy, family pet, significant other, insignificant other, teacher, tribal member, or political leader sends you a file attached to an e-mail document, VIRUS CHECK THAT FILE. It does not matter what the subject line of the e- mail letter to which that file is attached is called. VIRUS CHECK THAT FILE! I hope this clears things up. :) _____________________________________ Avery Todd Moores School of Music University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-4893 713-743-3226 atodd@uh.edu http://www.uh.edu/music/ _____________________________________
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