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Apologies

(18 posts) (11 voices)

Started 16 years ago by Whiterabbit-uk
Latest reply from copmom

Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

I received a virus alert last night, or early this morning (not sure exactly when as I was exhausted). Anyway, without thinking I emailed the thing onto a bunch of people from my contact list includingmost people that have contacted me through the giveaway project using that particular Email. I was very tired at the time so didn't think to use the facility to hide everyones Emails from each other. (It had been turned off). For this I apologise. Also it seems that the Email was a possible scam, though it did say that the virus had been confirmed by a specific security manager. I always scan my emails for Malware, and it showed no problems with the Email, so you shouldn't worry about that, though it was pointed out to me that a spammer culd now have all of our emails, though I don't understand how they could get the mail if I wasn't directly sending a mail out to them (as already mentioed I only used my trusted contacts). I didn't think anything of it until receiving two Emails from fellow Giveaway community members who were not happy with what I'd done. I've tried to send out individual Emails apologising to everyone just in case I've caused any upsets at exposing your Emails to others. all I can say apart from a very big sorry is that all the links I used are from what I consider trusted people.

If you have not yet opened the Email from me Whiterabbit-moonrising with a virus warning in the title, just as a precaution please delete it. Thank you.

I will not be sending out Emails en mass again. Not that I usually do. I just felt I should warn you all about the possible threat as the way it was described it seemed pretty serious. Though I personally would be wary of such an Email as I've had loads recently about my banks and moreso about my PayPAL account but was suspicious so sent them unopened to their fraud address and was told that all of them were fraudulent.

We must be very vigilant about Emails. I do hope my oversight as not put anyone off contacting me on my hotmail accounts. I really enjoy receiving Emails from you all, especially as I'm virtually house bound, so you are my only contacts.

Again I'm sorry if I've caused any upsets; and if you didn't receive an apology, it was only because I wasn't systematic when writing the individual Emails to everyone and got a little lost as to who I'd sent mails out to.

yours sincerely

WhiteRabbit aka Stephen

Posted 16 years ago #
Buckleysmom
Member

Hey......we all make mistakes......and with all you do for all of us and GOTD I think we can allow you a little mishap. No big deal. Thanks for all you do! You're the best wit'l whabbit awound. ;)

Posted 16 years ago #
LeKanaw
Member

Dear Stephen
Please don't anguish about it.
Anybody can make a mistake or get it wrong from time to time.
But it came from a good intention of warning us - So *ALL* is good!!
Much Luv, Manu

PS: I think I can never say it enough: THANK YOU for all you do for the community!
You are a Wonderful WRabbit =Ö•Ö=

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

Dear Stephen,
Don't fret about this.. the only people that would see my actual email address are those on the GOTD forum, and I've got no problem with any of them seeing it. At least it's one way we can contact each other (if needed), if the forum goes down. We've got a lot of good friends here, and I truly don't think anyone that we communicate with on a regular basis would be devious! So NOT to worry! And, I didn't get any kind of warning when I opened it.. so no difficulties on my end.
{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}} ~ Lauri

Posted 16 years ago #
RunesageMagik
Member

IRONCLAD RULES:
1- Always strip header info before forwarding something.
2- NEVER forward emails without putting private email addies on the BCC line.
3- Resist the urge to forward chain letters, hoax warnings, unsolicited jokes and "funny" photos.
4- Don't click on ANY unsolicited emails regardless how teasing or intriguing the Subject line sounds.

It matters little whether an email being forwarded contains a virus, a buried HTML exploit, a malware hyperlink or is completely innocuous.

The problem is that it was passed on to others, along with a batch of supposedly private email addresses. All the addies were exposed, those in the previous headers that weren't properly stripped away, and those in the new set of private email addies dumped on the TO line.

All the email addies are now out in cyberspace, totally out of the owners' control. Doesn't matter a wit that it went to a group of "trusted" friends, because they're all strangers to everyone else and many may NOT practice safe computer. Any recipient on the growing list who also mistakenly thinks they're being helpful will forward the whole kit and kaboodle to yet another group, and thus it snowballs exponentially. Within hours all those PRIVATE addies may have circled the globe multiple times, landing in who knows whose mailbox. Some fraction of recipients' PC's are unsecure (security patches not updated) or are infected, slaved or otherwise compromised and they're totally unaware their address books are routinely siphoned.

This is the intent of those who start hoaxes. They derive pleasure simply from sucking up bandwidth and causing a little tizzy. Debunked hoaxes are continually being revived by spammers who actually launch such "helpful" emails (and put their own email addie in the mix) precisely because they know that with each "helpful" forwarding, a new set of live email addies is sent BACK to them to harvest and sell to other spammers.

Even if a warning is legit, by the time one of you get it, the big security companies already know about it and have likely added a patch that may have already been issued with a virus def upgrade. There's a sucker born every minute. Every individual needs to follow safe computer, but most don't. Passing along a single email warning when thousands of bits of malicious crap are being flung about daily is utterly futile, IMHO. Well-intentioned, but futile.

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

All I ever send when emailing to a 'group' are BCC: In fact when I reply to someone and they've got all those forward, forwards, I strip all of those before replying.

Another reason you don't want everyone's email showing is that's how spammers amass their email lists.

Posted 16 years ago #
MrFishy
Member

Hey WR . . . Would you mind posting the name of the alleged infection? Thanks.

Posted 16 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

WR you are not the only one who fell for this hoax :

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mailserver.asp

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

I'll go along with graylox, my sister used to toss those things at me every 2 days until I critiqued a couple dozen pointing out the hoax points. Dry and wittily.

Only took 3 years after that to teach her BCC: [sigh]

Posted 16 years ago #
funkymom
Member

i've been struggling to remind my mom about bcc. she keeps forgetting, especially since she usually only mass-e-mails family.

Posted 16 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks for the in depth explanation Runesage.

Mr Fishy, just follow the link that Graylox posted. It was that report that was mentioned.

Thanks for your replies. After receiving the two Emails I did feel really bad about it. I don't profess to being a computer expert, but I do know enough to get by. (though the stuff you mention RM had not occured to me) My own computers are well secured and hopefully kept clean of malware. I have two Email accounts that I use for close friends and secure payments online which despite several years of use have never had any spam mails even though a couple of friends have sent such mails to me previously, so the threat you mentioned was news to me. I only use paid for software; apart from Mamutu which was given away a month or so ago and Prev-X on another computer. Both of which I'm still evaluating and think I will be buying at some point when the years worth of updates finish, though I'm still unsure about Mamutu.

Again I apologise. My Bcc field has been activated on my computer, though after this I doubt I'll be sending out such emails again.

Posted 16 years ago #
NolafromNZ
Member

I too, have absolutely no problems with having received the email. I hadn't got around to passing it on, but if I had, I would certainly have stripped all extraneous matter from it anyway, as I usually do. I have only just gone from Incredimail (with BCC already just sitting there) to Thunderbird without BCC being anywhere visible, so if anyone else using Thunderbird knows how to access it, I would love to know how. Failing that, I can, and will, have a hunt around through Thunderbird myself.

In any case, I knew most of the email addresses anyway from reading Hannah's diary.

So, don't stress Stephen, I too, hadn't really thought it out until I read Runesage's post above. Thank you RM, I have learned something today too. You just never stop learning in life, do you?

Posted 16 years ago #
funkymom
Member

nola- my mom (who can't remember to use bcc) uses thunderbird. i'm pretty sure that when you use your address book to fill in fields you can choose which fields to fill. (does that make sense?- you can choose bcc from your address book......i think.)

she's not at home now, but i'll check it out next time i'm around when thunderbird is open.

Posted 16 years ago #
bluhoteyes
Member

One thing i found is running my antivirus program 24/7 keeps me protected no matter what someone sends me and i have stood by pc-cillin for years and have been virus free with the exception of a few months i decided not to buy my yearly subscription and let me tell you that one time cured my conserving:) lol

Posted 16 years ago #
NolafromNZ
Member

Thanks Funkymom, I googled it, and found you have to have your contacts in the lefthand pane and click on the ones you want, then right click to add to the Bcc field. I like to have a full page to write on because I burble on when emailing, so I have to rearrange the way I do things even more. I must say I loved the way Incredimail does things, and I really miss it, but it kept falling over all the time, even when updated, and having to restart it every time I looked at an email got too painful. There I go, burbling on.

Back on subject, you are still forgiven Stephen lol

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

Nola.. that's how I got the email addy's too.. from Hannah's diary! LOL Well, gee, there they were just sitting there! *-)
Speaking of Hannah, last time I spoke with son (about 1-1/2 weeks ago), he said they still had to adjust her calcium levels, and that the Rx was running about $110 per month, so she switched over to Tums which basically do the same thing. That's all I know at this point.

Posted 16 years ago #
bluhoteyes
Member

So Happy your grandbaby is finally getting better and things are looking great copmom. Isn't it so wonderful how we can observe God answering prayers:) woooooooooohoooooooooooooo

Posted 15 years ago #
copmom
Member

That's for sure Pam!

Posted 15 years ago #

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