Protecting Your E-Mail Address Book Tip From Worms

How to protect your e-mail address book ...

"All things are difficult before they are easy."

-- Thomas Fuller, physician



Being a computer repairman like myself, I saw this a few years back and I thought I'd share it with you. 

                                                      


I have 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 computers. 
 
                                                
 
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 in 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 AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA 

or you can use something like !000.
 
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 or the !000 will show up as entry number 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 AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA, 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 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  AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA 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.

I'm always looking to thwart these guys and their insidious worms and trojans. They are sent out and accidentally clicked onto by unknowing people and this is how is instigates itself into every ones lives.

I hope this was helpful. Try it out and see what happens. It's a very easy and simple way to stop them before they take over your computers.

 

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Robert and Lisa Hammerstein • Sales Associates • Coldwell Banker • (201)315-8618

• Address • 50 Broadway • Hillsdale, NJ 07642 •