Attack of the Spam

After having one virus infiltrate my computer somehow (since I don't open unfamiliar e-mail attachments), needless to say, although I was careful before, I'm doubly careful now. I usually check e-mail through Earthlink's website, easily culling out the spam without reading, and then download the legit e-mail (if any) via Eudora. Even when I do download straight to Eudora, because blind cc'd items do not show up in the web mail box, I delete spam without ever opening it, especially those with attachments. (BTW, even if I had a Preview Pane I wouldn't use it.)

A few days ago I had a puzzled note from a friend asking me what the .zip file was that I sent her. I responded that I had not sent her a .zip file; I had, however, seen another message in that particular e-mail box with the same message line as the message my friend cited. Since it was nothing I had requested, I had deleted it. Someone--possible the friend who had asked me about it--evidently had opened it, though: chatting about it later, we discovered it was a virus that not only sends itself to everyone in your e-mail box, but puts your e-mail address on some of the messages. Case closed.

Today there's a different wrinkle. In four hours I have deleted 50 e-mails from my box, all actually sent to another address, but blind cc'd to me and molto other people, if the furious responses also being blind cc'd to me and everyone else are any indication. This is from some company that has been sending me an e-mail newsletter for what seems like years (maybe a year), one I never subscribed to. (I think I bought one of their items on e-Bay and they automatically subscribed me to it.) I've been too lazy to unsubscribe to it; every week I just delete the thing from my e-mail box without reading it. Evidently I should have gotten off my tush and unsubscribed.

I fired off a nice letter to the postmaster on this company's website telling them about the problem...and oh, asking if they'd take me off the stupid mailing list, too. We'll see...

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:52:00 AM

Comments: Post a Comment