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Quit Sending Me Viruses!

March 29, 2004

© 2004 by Nick B. Nicholaou, all rights reserved
President, Ministry Business Services, Inc.
Reprinted from Christian Management Report

Are you tired of getting those emails too?  Most people don’t realize that modern viruses are able to spoof the From email address.  That means you may not have been the source of the virus you’ve just been told you sent.

So what should you do when you receive one of those emails requesting you to stop sending viruses?  The first thing to do is make certain that your system is not infected.  To do so, check to be sure your anti-virus signature files are up-to-date.  If they are dated, you should update them and then scan your system for viruses.

If your system has a virus, clean it out ASAP.  If your system is clean, then disregard the email you were sent.  The reason you received that email is that viruses can read some email system address books.  The worst offender is Microsoft’s Outlook Address Book.  A virus can send itself to every email address listed there and some can spoof the sender as anyone listed in that address book, making it very difficult to trace their origin.

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