I'll second Dr. McDavid's comment and add one more possibility. There are
spyware programs in the marketplace that can be surreptitiously forced along
with innocent, non-viral application, images, etc. Most anti-virus programs
won't pick them up. I've found them with a subscription service named Pest
Patrol (www.pestpatrol.com). Some of them were keystroke capture programs
which record every keystroke you make and transmit them to someone via the
Internet.
I use Computer Associate's Etrust antivirus system, one of the best I've
found in my experience online, and I still need to sweep for spyware
regularly.
To reinforce Dr. McDavid's point, there are hacker utilities, which can be
downloaded free, that search the Internet and capture email addresses to be
inserted as return addresses for spam and attackware. If your email address
is anywhere online, it will probably show up as a bogus return address.
Mine has.
Robert Marcom
http://robertmarcom.com
"Digging Up Texas" ISBN 1-55622-937-2
"Darkly, Darkly" ISBN 1-931201-64-1
"Cosmic Photo Book" ISBN 1-931457-11-5
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol McDavid" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: virus
> Some worms and viruses raid and spoof "innocent" email addresses even if
the
> computers being raided/spoofed aren't infected. I use constantly updated
> virus protection software, and sweep often besides, and still get "hey you
> sent a virus" messages replying to messages I didn't send in the first
> place, and wormy/virusy messages from other addresses which are also
> "clean". These viruses and worms trawl the Internet and pick up email
> addresses from multiple-person distribution lists, web sites, and other
> sources. If you are "out there", net-wise (if you get group emails, or
have
> your email address on a web site, or whatever), you won't be able to avoid
> this stuff. But it doesn't necessarily mean that your computer has the
> virus/worm. Though Paul's right -- an extra sweep never hurts!
>
> carol
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Carol McDavid, Ph.D. (Cantab)
> 1638 Branard, Houston, Texas, 77006, USA
> (713) 523-2649
> [log in to unmask]
> www.webarchaeology.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "paul courtney" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 6:00 PM
> Subject: virus
>
>
> Someone presumably on Histarch has Worm.Bagle.Z raiding their email
> directory and generating false emails as I have had several returned email
> messages with virus warnings from people like Eric Deetz and Mark Leone,
> none of whom I have either emailed or even have in my email directory. I
> have checked my own computer with a virus sweep and suggest everyone does
> the same.
>
> paul courtney
> Leicester
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