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Tech: peculiar email
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Subject: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,Clint Keller Date: 03 Mar 04 - 09:46 PM I just got this. It looks like a phony to me but does anybody know what it is? Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 18:54:01 -0500 To: hclintonkeller@yahoo.com Subject: Notify about using the e-mail account. From: administration@yahoo.com Hello user of Yahoo.com e-mail server, We warn you about some attacks on your e-mail account. Your computer may contain viruses, in order to keep your computer and e-mail account safe, please, follow the instructions. Pay attention on attached file. For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is "74340". Cheers, The Yahoo.com team http://www.yahoo.com And there is indeed an attached file. clint |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:44 PM You have read it? You are probably infected.
Go to Gibson Research, Zone Alarm, and Symantics to learn the extent of your possible damage.
Stay away from the MudCat and all e-mails until this time next week.....IF you have solved the problem....
If....this is too complicated....by a new machine and continue to post.
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Allan C. Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:44 PM I've not received any similar message at my Yahoo email account. I hope you don't plan to open the attachment. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: open mike Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:45 PM beware...i just got a message from my ISP warning of a similar message containing a bogus "password" which they cautioned to NOT open. Be very cautious of ANY attachment. For one thing, the message is apparently written by someone who is not familiar with the English language, due to a few errors contained in the message (syntax?) MY inbox is filled with suspicious e-mails, many of which are similar to this one. The other thing i have seen warnings about are any messages with the word "binary" in the text. I would recommend you make sure your virus protection is up to date.!! Laurel |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,Clint Keller Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:55 PM Thanks much. It looks like it was written by a non-English speaker all right; that's what alerted me. I haven't opened the attachment and I've got a Mac, so I don't think I'm infected. clint That's cute, gargoyle. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:57 PM This is a complex and bad set of stuff. I'll get the notice from work and stick it in here: To All Library Staffs: W32.Beagle.J@mm is a mass-mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to spread through email. It is designed to send messages to email addresses that it gathers from an affected machine. As always, any time you receive an unexpected email from an unknown sender, you should be suspicious. If you can't verify the sender, don't open the message and DELETE the email. BOTTOM-LINE is, if you receive emails containing any of the information below, regardless of whom you may think sent them, please DELETE them. Virus Characteristics: From: The From field is spoofed: (Sender address is randomly taken from one of these addresses) management@ administration@ staff@ noreply@ support@ Subject: (One of the following) E-mail account disabling warning. E-mail account security warning. Email account utilization warning. Important notify about your e-mail account. Notify about using the e-mail account. Notify about your e-mail account utilization. Warning about your e-mail account. Message Body: (any of the following) Dear user of Dear user of Dear user of e-mail server " Hello user of Dear user of " Dear user, the management of Followed by one of the following paragraphs: ---Your e-mail account has been temporary disabled because of unauthorized access. Our main mailing server will be temporary unavaible for next two days, to continue receiving mail in these days you have to configure our free auto-forwarding service. ---Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your account information. ---We warn you about some attacks on your e-mail account. Your computer may contain viruses, in order to keep your computer and e-mail account safe, please, follow the instructions. ---Our antivirus software has detected a large ammount of viruses outgoing from your email account, you may use our free anti-virus tool to clean up your computer software. ---Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content)outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions. Followed by one of the following lines: For more information see the attached file. Further details can be obtained from attached file. Advanced details can be found in attached file. For details see the attach. For details see the attached file. For further details see the attach. Please, read the attach for further details. Pay attention on attached file. Followed by one of the following lines: For security reasons attached file is password protected. The password is " For security purposes the attached file is password protected. Password is " Attached file protected with the password for security reasons. Password is In order to read the attach you have to use the following password: Followed by one of the following lines: The Management, Sincerely, Best wishes, Have a good day, Cheers, Kind regards, Attachment: The attachment is one of the following: .Zip or .Pif Attach Information Readme Document Info TextDocument TextFile MoreInfo Message The latest Norton (Symantec) definition files should be March 2 on your computer. You might want to check. You also might want to read this interesting article about some of the squabbling content inside these nasty worms: http://informationweek.securitypipeline.com/news/18201817 SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 03 Mar 04 - 11:00 PM Ahhh...the more pernicious of the band are writing script....to Jobs craftsmanship...in addition to Gates.
Beware....
Only Lynox is safe.
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,Clint Keller Date: 03 Mar 04 - 11:33 PM Now that I know what to look for, I found: ...Systems Not Affected: DOS, Linux, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Windows 3.x And thanks again. You people are just fine (all I got from Yahoo! is a message telliing me to fill out a different form. Snarl.) clint |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,SeanM too lazy to find cookie Date: 04 Mar 04 - 12:28 AM I'm working at a web company that hosts a few thousand sites. Our servers are getting clogged by this to no end. Fortunately, our serverside security catches the crap and replaced it with a warning file. It started slow, but it's snowballing. Fast. M |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Mar 04 - 12:35 AM The name of the Canadian server Shaw is being used- "Shaw email administrator." Shaw is receiving complaints; so far their response has been "not responsible." |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 04 - 12:58 AM Thanks for the heads-up. I don't use OE, so haven't had a problem with my regular email, but I found several of these in my Yahoo online account, tonight. Fortunately, they'd been shunted off and all I had to do was delete and empty the trash. kat |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Blackcatter Date: 04 Mar 04 - 01:16 AM When I saw this in my yahoo account (in only one of the three accounts I used, which was fishy in itself) It just had a silly feeling to it. Anything that Yahoo would be doing with this would likely be tied to Norton. Also, it's odd that they would be sending zip files considering that is a rather popular way to spread viruses. Though I did have Yahoo's Norton scan it without downloading and is came up as clean. now THAT was scary! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 04 Mar 04 - 01:45 AM I got a similar email today purporting to be from management at Shaw cable. It is a false message which contained an infected attachment which my Norton AV caught and quaranteened. More info (and a downloadable fix) at: http://support.shaw.ca/alert/ These bastards are getting trickier... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 04 Mar 04 - 01:51 AM By the way, the message I got from these fuckers was a bit different. It pretended to come from management@shaw.ca and claimed they were getting several complaints of spamming and "negative email practices" coming from my e-mail address. It was a lie of course. The only messages I have sent out lately have been to my bandmates, dealing with practices, setlists, programs and info relating to our upcoming St. Paddy's gigs. They all got similar messages, with an infected attachment that the email directed us to open in order to rectify the problems. This really pisses me off!! I can just bet several people fell for this trick. Thank gawd for the virus checker and regular updates! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo Date: 04 Mar 04 - 01:54 AM My AV (SymanteC) and Earthlink's input scanner didn't flag it (claimed to come from support@netcom.com) Not to worry, it had "Virus" written all over it (ZIP file? No thanks). I reported it to Earthlink abuse, and terminated it with extreme prejudice. ANOTHER WARNING: Similar e-mails have come from (purportedly) E-Bay and Citibank recently, claiming some security issue or account issue (I don't _have_ an E-Bay account; dead giveaway) and asking me to click on a web link and update my account information. These are not viruses (or worms). Rather, they are spoofed URL links that point to someone else's web site, and these sites take the info (presumably credit card numbers and such) and use it for identity theft. I'd note that if you use the "make a link" stuff below, you'll see how this works: The link text (what you see on the page) doesn't have to look at all like the actual link referenced. It may _say_ (in blue) "Please update your information at www.citibank.com/support" or some such thing, but the actual link contained there is to somewhere else. Make it a habit to look at the bottom of your screen before clicking any suspicious links; your browser (or some mailers even) will show the actual link referenced at the bottom when your pointer is on top of a link. If the real link doesn't look like a proper address for what you're supposedly trying to go address, DON'T CLICK IT! Be particularly suspicious of IP addresses (those XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX type things); legitimate businesses generally are using proper and registered domains, and don't need IP addressing. (Please note, though, that some people have legitimate sites web-hosted by someone else, so that the URL may look like it's for a different company than the company whose page you're trying to view. If you have a question, there are tools on the Internet to tell you who owns a domain name or IP address ("Sam Spade" is onesuch site), and these should help in determining if a site is legitimate. Any lingering questions; go to the public web page of the company you're trying to access, and see if they have a "contact us" thing, and ask them if the e-mail is legit (both Citibank and E-Bay have info on these recent indentity-theft spoof sites). HTH. Cheers, -- Arne Langsetmo |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Mudlark Date: 04 Mar 04 - 02:24 AM I got one of these this morning too, purportedly from my own local provider, with the exact same password number. Since I open no attachment unless I personally know who's sending I called my provider and theiy informed me it was bogus. I'm on an iMac, using Netscape. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: JohnInKansas Date: 04 Mar 04 - 02:44 AM The "password in text" is a specific feature of one of the new variants of a "currently popular" virus package. By "password protecting" the viral portion of the message, it "theoretically" cannot be accessed by your antivirus program. (If you AV is current it can still detect the virus.) Since the AV can't read the text to get the password, it's not supposed to be able to "open" the package to inspect it, but if you enter the password, you've turned it loose on your machine. DELETE. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: JohnInKansas Date: 04 Mar 04 - 02:53 AM There's a brief description at Combating Netsky.C, D, E Viruses An included comment there is: W32/Bagle variants: The last three versions, F, G and H, use password protected zip files as extensions, with random numeric passwords. The passwords are appended into the body message of the infected email. There's some additional info in the article, but for more specific info, check with your AV site. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 04 - 04:00 AM There's an interesting article at Washington Post. Here's the first bit: Dueling Viruses Are Latest Computer Pest Consumers and Businesses Caught in the Crossfire as Hackers Take Aim at Each Other By Mike Musgrove Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 4, 2004; Page E01 The programmers behind the ongoing wave of computer worms and viruses hitting the Internet are starting to take aim at each other, and consumers and businesses around the world are getting caught in the crossfire, security experts said yesterday. In the space of about three hours early Wednesday morning, five new variants of widespread bugs MyDoom, Bagle and Netsky were spotted roaming the Web. And, in a new twist, the unknown virus writers have gotten into what amounts to a shouting match, by placing insults and threats against each other in the coding of the latest versions of their wares. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Shanghaiceltic Date: 04 Mar 04 - 04:12 AM I had a couple of e-mails last weeks which said they contained a Norton warning in an attachement. However as I did not recognise the sender I just deleted them. Like many people on this site I open nothing now if I do not recognise the sender. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 04 Mar 04 - 07:09 AM Australia was recently hit by lots of this sort of thing purporting to come from aussie banks. I've watched Mailwasher isolate and nuke lots of this sort of thing from Ebay, etc - you can see if there is an attachment and the total size of the email... The one that claimed to be from the Bendigo Bank (yes the town is the name famous from our golddigging/bushranger days) which was spelt 'Bendugo Bank' caused some merriment... Robin |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 04 Mar 04 - 06:52 PM I received a suspicious e-mail from a person I didn't recognize. It had an attachment and the password, as in the first message. I deleted the message without opening the attachment. Later I got a message from Hallmark Cards saying they had blocked a message I had sent them because it contained a .zip attachment. Well, I didn't send that message, never heard of the employee it was sent to, and don't even know what a zip file is. Could I have activated the virus merely by reading the first e-mail? I went to the Symantec site and did the repair, and it said no virus was found. But how could that message have been sent to Hallmark with my e-mail address on it? BTW, I have Norton Anti-virus and it updates itself regularly. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 04 Mar 04 - 07:30 PM thanks, kat...you saved me the trouble of posting that link... Folks, these guys are getting bolder, cleverer and greedier...until Bill G gets his new 'security' system woorking...(maybe 2 years, he says), you need to treat **EVERY** email with a measure of suspicion and NOT open any attachments unless you know where they came from...READ the headers and scan the spelling and syntax, and you will usually see when it's some virus writer from Maylasia trying to do naughty things! Ebay and Yahoo and PayPal..etc..do NOT send this sort of message. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 04 Mar 04 - 07:39 PM I got one purporting to be from my local ISP this morning that said my email would be interrupted for a few days, but I could use their forwarding system...just click on the attached file.....attachment.pif It sounded like a non native English speaker....misuse of an adverb and no article where there should be one. It seems that we Americans (maybe other English speakers too) use articles more than other languages. Anybody know if this is true? I like what Anne explained about the links above. I got one from *ebay* last week and I wondered about the link that said www.ebay.com duhhhh...now I know. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Mar 04 - 07:47 PM No, you didn't do anything, leeneia. But your email address is in the computer of someone who made the mistake of opening that file. The worm took all of the addresses it could find and "spoofed" email by saying it came from you or others in the infected computer's address list. When that infected email was received by Hallmark (another address in the infected computer), Hallmark rejected it with a message to whoever "apparently" sent it. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Mar 04 - 08:00 PM I noted earlier that Canadian server names were being used in these messages in Canada. Legitimate notices about email delivery from Shaw.ca do not have attachments; the email text has the message. If there is an attachment it is not from Shaw; delete. Like most employees, those working for the state of California use office computers for some (a lot?) of personal mail. The State has a pretty good firewall system, though. Last week I forgot and sent a Bush cartoon to a friend in a state office rather than at his home. Delivery was refused, and the friend got a warning email telling him that a 'subversive' message had been received and deleted. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 04 Mar 04 - 08:50 PM Big Brother is alive and well, and living in The White House, Q... :-) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 04 Mar 04 - 09:23 PM "...he worm took all of the addresses it could find and "spoofed" email by saying it came from you or others in the infected computer's address list.." note...'almost' ALL of this happens to Outlook or Outlook Express address lists. The bad boys are aware of the weaknesses in Outlook, and also know that 90% of everyone USES Outlook....of course they target Outlook! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 04 - 09:52 PM Yea, Bill! Keep telling 'em! You've made a believer outta me! I still miss my Eudora, BUT Mozilla's Thunderbird is doing a fair imitation. (Really miss the yin/yang spinner;-) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 05 Mar 04 - 01:46 AM (rant begins) Okay, leeneia, I'll tell you a likely source for spammers and virus-sending pricks to acquire your e-mail address and use it to masquerade their crap and pretend it's coming from you. We all have e-mail friends and acquaintances that forward jokes, glurge, cutesy angel graphics and e-snowball fights, "inspirational stories", urban legends, virus warning hoaxes ("just in case it's true") and chain letters (Damn them! Delete them all unread and end the stupidity!), etc. ad nauseum. Without fail, they hit that damn "FORWARD button in the e-mailer that I wish would disappear from all e-mail software. Then they put a whole whack of e-mail addresses in the TO: box and send it out to everybody, many of which will repeat the same process. After several generations, you get a basically unreadable collection of text broken up by >>>s, along with a whole pile of headers containing and broadcasting every e-mail address the thing has been sent to in the last month and a half. Who knows where these e-mails end up?... with your (and several other, including the senders) e-mail address on it for the harvesting by someone who collectes, uses and sells e-mail address, almost never for honourable purposes. If people want to send stuff out to many recipients and it is a message that is likely to be passed on to others, they should enter those addresses in the BCC: box. That is, the BLIND CARBON COPY field, where you can't see where the emails are bound. And above all, DON"T use that c___s___ing FORWARD button. Cut and paste the message to a new e-mail and clean it up, for chrissake! If you're going to send it out, have some courtesy to make it readable. One more tip... You know those webpages that have a link that says "CLICK HERE TO SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND"? Well, don't! If you want to alert someone to a webpage, cut and paste the URL to the message body of a regular e-mail. Don't give a friend's e-mail address to god-knows-who so they can sell it to spammers. Imagine the uses your e-mail address could be put to, besides just to fill your inbox with spam... Maybe for jollies some scum posts some kiddie porn on a newsgroup with your e-address in the REPLY TO: field. Suddenly you're inundated with hate e-mail. Probably the authorities would ignore it and spot in the header that it didn't come from you, but maybe they deceide to check you out just in case you might have some tenuous link to this kind of crap. Maybe they show up and check out your hard drive. Is everything completely above board there, or do you have a pirated game there or maybe a demo of some software you didn't pay for and should have deleted months ago or maybe some MP3s you don't have the original CDs for, etc... All because Aunt Martha can't stop forwarding little angel graphics and chain emails around to the Quilting Guild and you too. Okay, maybe I'm getting paranoid, but it's not completely outside the realms of possiblity. (rant over... or is it?) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 05 Mar 04 - 01:11 PM Cluin, amen! There is one in the family who does this. May lightning strike his computer. Perhaps I am Luditic, but I keep my email addresses in a little black book, hand-inscribed, and have never opened a computer-stored address book. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Mar 04 - 01:40 PM Q, the trouble with keeping them on paper is that some spam blocking software will then let in virtually no email if you don't list them so your filter can look at them. I use Earthlink, and finally resorted to their ratcheted-high-no-non-listed-email spam filter because I was so sick of the slimy stuff coming through. I do use the BCC, and when friends or family prove unreliable about doing the same, I change the email they use to reach me over to one that is my "public" address (and since it isn't listed in any of the browsers I use, the information isn't left behind on any logs--another way our email addresses are disseminated). The Earthlink mail works by posting the addresses I am willing to receive mail from in the web-version of Earthlink's email program. Anything that isn't listed in there is chucked into the "suspect spam" and "known spam" files. If someone sends a post and it goes there, they receive a bounced message from Earthlink telling them how to request their name be added (it goes to me and I say "yes" or "no.") A few feelings have been hurt, usually those people who rarely write and I didn't have their address handy when I set up the list. When the request comes through, I usually add them. Sometimes people have several email addresses, like I do, and I don't have each one on my list. The are added as they turn up. The result? Every couple of days I open the web folder of suspect email, scan down the list of names (trying to avert my eyes from the subject lines, they're mostly just too nauseating). 99 times out of 100 there is nothing in there that was caught by accident, and I click on a "delete all spam" and there it goes. Same with the known spam folder. And if I do nothing to them, the stuff goes away after a couple of weeks. Just something to think about. I don't use Outlook at home (I am left with no choice at work) and I have none of the preview panes on in any email program. I'm hunkered down behind my software trying to keep out the trash. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 05 Mar 04 - 02:59 PM amen, again, Cluin...and SRS...there are several variations in the details of the suggestions you both make, but the basic idea is STILL to think and learn...for your own protection, as well as for the comfort of your friends. (I *preview' 99% of my email with a secondary program before it ever GETS downloaded from the server, though I could do it like SRS if I would take the time to set up properly....and redundant safeguards are not a bad idea!) (and kat...I forget why you can't use Eudora now, seems weird...but as a matter of interest, that little spinning yin-yang thing is GONE! Seems some groups considered it 'representative' of other religions or something and got it banned. I found a place that gave me an alternate black & white circle with just 2 halves.) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 05 Mar 04 - 03:03 PM just did a search...and here is the 'official' answer.. http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/kb/1567hq.html and the workaround! http://members.cox.net/ronmiles7/ seems I CAN get my yin-yang back after all! pooh! maybe not! That link is not live! They have really made it hard to get the old .epi file! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Mar 04 - 03:36 PM Bill D can you find in your links access to old versions of programs and download the earlier Eudora? I'm still using it, happily, and my little twirling yin/yang symbol is going strong. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: katlaughing Date: 05 Mar 04 - 03:49 PM Thanks, Bill. I couldn't get my old Eudora to transfer over to my new hard drive, so went looking and found that Eudora officially has some problems with WINXP home which is what we've got now. I didn't pursue it further partly because my brain was frying at the time with the all of the extra downloads they suggested to work around the problem, the new hard drive set-up programs, getting the network set up, etc. Now that I've had some time to breath, I might take a look, again. I'd like to use my old program, but I really appreciate your workaround link...silly buggers! kat |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 Mar 04 - 04:07 PM When you download a file for installation, the recommended practice is to save the file to disk, and then install from the saved "install file." (This gives you a chance to inspect with your AV before you actually "open" it, among other 'reasons given.') While I understand that we don't always follow the recommendations, it's fairly common for a "direct install from web" to download the install file and then just "trigger" the installation from the file after it's already on your machine. This avoids mangled installation due to an interruption in your web connection, since the actual install doesn't start until you've successfully completed the download. It is possible that your old version has an "install file" that was left there after stuff was "expanded and applied," if you still have access to the old installation. It would usually be a .exe (self extracting zip?) or a plain vanilla .zip or .cab. While some programs will delete the original, it is quite often just "left laying around." No guarantees here, but it might be worth looking on the old disk? John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: katlaughing Date: 05 Mar 04 - 04:32 PM Hmmm, I just tried that and the old unit told me to get a high capacity floppy as the program file was too large for it; that was for the one I found which was simply eudora.exe. I'll ask Rog to bring home some new floppies and give it a go. I think we may tried that, but maybe not. Thanks, John. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: JohnInKansas Date: 05 Mar 04 - 05:15 PM kat - It can be pretty much "guesswork" to identify an installation file, once it's been surrounded by all the other stuff in a program; but usually if you put a .exe on your disk and double click it, it will just "fail" if it's a run file that needs an installation. While "random clicking" on .exe's that you're not sure of is not a generally recommended thing to do, it's unlikely to do any damage, if it came from a known program. I try to follow the principle of never installing anything before I've archived the original installation file - but we all know about "good intentions," and all that stuff. John |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 06 Mar 04 - 09:30 AM Thanks, Cluin, for all that information. I appreciate the completeness of your reply to my question. I believe I will soften it and pass it on to the well-meaning relatives who send me cute stuff. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,Jon Date: 06 Mar 04 - 11:09 AM I have just recieved. Hello user of Folkinfo.org e-mail server, Quite ammusing as folkinfo is my own domain and it is me that sets user names, passwords and email accounts...Jon |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,nasty Date: 06 Mar 04 - 11:34 AM Fed up with porn sales spam we located the server by highlighting link. Then we found the upstream providers. Next from a convenience email address we created an address book with the email addresses of every one at the providers- I seem to recall a dozen. Next sending a warning to them like this " Please do not send this crap 'url' to our home computer which is used by our kids" Thankyou. Sometimes it works but when it doesent we would then cruise the Webmasters ( wankers IOW ) sites and donate the upstream address book to their contacts lists. We do not get much pornospam these days. If you think that the client site does not know how to reach the spammers then you are as daft as they think you are. IOW these folks are all of them the SAME people! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 07 Mar 04 - 06:51 AM I got a call today from a friend concerned about a message from my work address "Re: letter" with an attachment which she didn't open. She uses a Mac & has had it for some time & has never received any spam even tho her email address is on her 2001 CD. Now she is getting spam & suspicious messages with attachments. We had both thought Macs were relatively safe in the Microsoft world! sandra |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 07 Mar 04 - 09:29 AM Macs 'are' relatively safe in the PC world, but the spammers don't really know that an email addresss leads to a Mac. Most of the viruses won't hurt a Mac, but the spam will wear us all down! Some spam gets thru by the process of trying every combination of email addresses their robot programs can imagine, and some email addresses are manually harvested and gradually worked into the system. The spammers are like ants, roaches, mice and other vermin...it's hard to devise a system to totally keep them out. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 07 Mar 04 - 03:41 PM I guess it's all just part of the price we pay for having a big free (apart from our ISP charges) wide-open internet. Each one of them is not that big a deal; it's just the sheer number of them that wears you down. I can't help but think "What a stupid waste of a great resource!" Apparently, two thirds of all e-mail traffic today is spam. Add to that this new spate of virus bombarding, countless chain e-mails, hoaxes, general crap most of us never even bother to read through before deleting.... The further we come, the more garbage we haul with us. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 07 Mar 04 - 03:55 PM Off the track, but libraries are reporting that encyclopaedias are little used now, the students turning to the internet. Looking for any subject on the internet brings up a good percentage of mis-information and slap-dash interpretation. This, I believe, is more dangerous than spam. It takes a wise teacher to instruct students on how to check for accuracy in websites. The amount of garbage data is steadily increasing, as Cluin points out. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 07 Mar 04 - 06:46 PM Very true, Q. An extreme example, but imagine a young naive student doing a history essay on WW2 and happening on a Holocaust denial site... But I was under the impression most teachers won't accept work where the bibliography only includes websites. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 07 Mar 04 - 07:19 PM Whoop....Whoooop! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 07 Mar 04 - 07:24 PM Hey, Laughing Boy. Got any more Nitrous? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 07 Mar 04 - 07:31 PM Whoop-de-ti-yi-o, get along, little Gargoyle, You know the Inferno will be your new home. Whoop-de ti-yi-o, get along little Gargoyle, It's your misfortune and none of our own. We'll slap on a brand and cut off his tail, And soon he'll be the weiner on the mixed grill. Beelzebub will wash him down with syllabub, Covered in mustard and served up hot in a sub. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Mar 04 - 12:00 PM Q, I thought that last line should have had the "ill" rhyme: Covered in mustard and served up hot with gray swill. Just a thought. Bill D: "The spammers are like ants, roaches, mice and other vermin...it's hard to devise a system to totally keep them out." In the natural world, we don't have mice, roaches, crickets, or other vermin in our house (though they are in the environment) because we have tarantulas in the yard that hunt and dine on the others. Maybe there will be a comparable computer development to match this marvelous arachnid. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 08 Mar 04 - 02:19 PM Might be a case of the cure being worse than the disease though, SRS. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 08 Mar 04 - 03:05 PM Digression warning! The tarantula is one of Nature's great creations. Except occasionally in Limestone, County, Texas. when the population explodes and they cover the land. I remember driving on a road in Limestone County back in the 1950s and those killed crossing the road made slippery patches. Like cats, they may have more than one life. We had a pet tarantula in one of our bio labs (in Texas). Tap a pencil on the lab bench and it would come for a treat of beef or a disabled insect. One student hated having it around and dropped in in a beaker of alcohol. We fished it out and left it on the bench. Next day it was crawling around, apparently recovered. Several days later it disappeared and was never found. Coincidentally, the student who had dunked it withdrew from the course. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 08 Mar 04 - 03:16 PM I was just thinking about the advisability of having a cyber version of the Acanthopelma hanging around the computer memory. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Mar 04 - 10:33 PM I have found tarantulas to be great predators but rather fragile it they are bounced around much. I was saddened last summer when trying to rescue one from the road--I bumped it along out of the street, but I'm no Tiger Woods when putting with sticks and spiders--it hit the curb, not the lawn, and slowly died where it landed. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 09 Mar 04 - 10:59 AM for good stuff from Arachnoids, go here site by Paul Lutus, creator of software called "careware", sworn enemy of Micro$oft, and man of MANY opinions, such as, "A person who won't think has no advantage over one who can't think". |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Cluin Date: 10 Mar 04 - 06:43 PM I've used Arachnophilia for years, Bill D. A great program by what sounds like a very nice fellow. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Bill D Date: 10 Mar 04 - 08:21 PM a very bright and well intentioned fellow who has MANY good ideas...just ask him! (I had a complex run-in with him about installing the java version...he couln't comprehend that his instructions didn't explain everything...*grin*...it is still a great program, and his wisdom is pretty special.) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Ella who is Sooze Date: 11 Mar 04 - 07:15 AM I've run all the virus checkers for the main ones and then some, but still getting the emails.... I don't open them I'm jus deleting them... Is there anything else I can do? Regards Ella |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Mar 04 - 09:44 AM delete, delete, delete--there is no way to make them go away. You're no longer under the radar and once they start they keep coming. Setting up a spam filter in your existing email might help at least shunt them off to the side where you can delete them. Or look into a service that has a filter (like Earthlink) or find a mail program that comes with it's own spam filter (Eudora has one, and if you get a Yahoo mail account you can filter and block virus and worm packets at the same time). SRS |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Nigel Parsons Date: 11 Mar 04 - 01:28 PM Or view them with an on-line facility which prevents the initial download to your system. Such as "web2mail" (Url 168.144.1.11) this allows you to see the headers/titles of the items in your mailbox, and delete anything you do not wish to download without importing it to Outlook Express first. The current "NETSKY" virus appears to be originating messages (usaully starting with subject line "Re:....") of between 21k & 31k. Nigel |
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Subject: RE: Tech: peculiar email From: Folkiedave Date: 11 Mar 04 - 03:51 PM I recommend everyone to use Mailwasher http://www.mailwasher.net/ which is free and is a very easy programme to set up which allows you to look at everything before it is downloaded. I always look at the column with attachments and anything I don't recognise I delete. Regards, Dave www.collectorsfolk.co.uk |
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