One with whom I shared this tip turned me onto its hoax-ness.

http://www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3>http://www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=263&page=3

Thanks for trying to help, Andrew.

John

At 12:30 PM 12/9/01 -0600, Andrew Castiglione wrote:

>To All,
>
>
>This little trick may help stop the spread of worm virus.
>
>"May be this may help your subscribers last week."
>
>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 will alert you to the fact
>that
>the worm has invaded 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  !000  (that's an exclamation mark followed by 3 zeros).
>
>In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email
>address,
>
>        Type in...    [log in to unmask]
>
>        Click "Save" and close.
>
>Now, here's what you'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  ([log in to unmask]).
>
>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 virus in your system.
>
>You can then take steps to get rid of it!
>
>I have used this an it works!
>
>---
>
>In the Spirit of the Golden Cards,
>
>  O_/      Andrew Castiglione
>_/|        N2 in waiting, Referee Instructor,
>__)\       Assessor/Mentor Grade 3
>`    \  o  Ken Aston Camp Staff Member
>Retired Registrar Region # 54 Area E Section 11
>Co-Administrator/Owner of [log in to unmask]
>Creator/Owner/Webmaster of...  <http://www.ayso-l.org>http://www.ayso-l.org
>Artesia, CA.

--
John W. Luther
Systems Administrator
Computing and Information Services
University of Missouri - Rolla

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.