A friend sent me this & wanted to pass it on as it sounds like a simple deterrent (in addition to staying current on your virus protection & live updates). Here is is:
This tip won't prevent YOU from getting any viruses (you have to scan those attachments yourself before opening them to do that), but it will stop those viruses from latching onto your address book and sending itself out to others. To avoid spreading computer viruses, create a contact in your email address book (make sure to use the tilde character ~, or other non-alpha character): first name: ~illegal last name: address email address: ~alert-virus This contact will then show up as your first contact. If a virus attempts to do a "send all" on your contact list, your PC will put up an error message saying that: "The Message could not be sent. One or more recipients do not have an e-mail address. Please check your Address Book and make sure all the recipients have a valid e-mail address." You click on OK and the offending (virus) message would not have been sent to anyone. Of course no changes have been made to your original contacts list. The offending (virus) message may then be automatically stored in your "Drafts" or "Outbox" folder. Go in there and delete the offending message. The problem is solved and the virus is not spread. Try this and pass on to your email contacts. The more people that use this technique, the less vulnerable we will be to viruses that spread in this manner! I hope this will help everyone who is interested. ******************************************** Kate Bennett www.katebennett.com sponsored by Polysonics www.polysonics.com Discover the Indies at Taylor Guitars: http://www.taylorguitars.com/artists/awp/indies/bennett.html ********************************************
