RECEIVING TOO MANY VIRUSES

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christi Anderson
  • Start date Start date
C

Christi Anderson

Today I came in to work and found yet more emails that
claimed to be from Microsoft with updates and patches and
service packs, etc. etc. There has been a total of
nearly 100 emails today that have had worms in them.
Thank God for Norton!

Are any of you having this problem? Weird thing is, I
don't use this email address for anything except
business. It's almost like somebody got into Microsoft's
database and got a bunch of email addresses and are
sending them.

Let me know either here or by email, (e-mail address removed)
whether any of yau'll are having this problem.

Thanks!
 
everyone is having a problem with them - if you look at the headers you
might be able to figure out which company you do business with who is
infected (check the sending IPs)

if your work email is emeraldcoasttitle, some copies come from people who
read newsgroups and are infected...

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours

http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com

Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=microsoft.public.outlook.*&num=30
 
I'm having the same exact problem. It started after I
downloaded a patch from MS. Sorry I can't help. Let me
know if you find a solution.
 
Bill said:
I'm having the same exact problem. It started after I
downloaded a patch from MS. Sorry I can't help. Let me
know if you find a solution.
Click to expand...

There IS no solution other than filtering or using a program that will allow
you to download and delete headers only.
 
I've set up a rule that seems to get rid of the current barrage of junk,
silently and in the background.

It appears that many (some?) ISP's use a Brightmail service to screen
messages for viruses. Somewhere along the line, the offending executables
are being intercepted by "Brightmail(r)", but nevertheless the message
itself is still sent on to me, with a notation in the body of the message
that the email "has been processed by Brightmail(r)" and that it was
infected with a virus.

It's nice that the virus was intercepted, but I certainly don't need a
mailbox full of such notifications.

I've set up a rule whereby any and all messages that contain "Brightmail(r)"
in the body are permanently deleted. An exception is if the sender appears
in my address book.

Seems to be working.

Some ISP's allow you to set up rules on their servers, so these messages can
be deleted before Outlook even downloads your mail. For those ISP's that
don't allow such rules, you can set the rule up "locally" so Outlook does
its stuff and permanently deletes the offensive crap from your computer.
 
was it a real patch or the fake one that is really a virus? (it you received
it from windowsupdate.microsoft.com it's real, if it came in an email, it's
a virus)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours

http://www.poremsky.com - http://www.cdolive.com

Expert Zone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

Search for answers: http://groups.google.com
Most recent posts to the Outlook newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=microsoft.public.outlook.*&num=30
 
Christi Anderson said:
Today I came in to work and found yet more emails that
claimed to be from Microsoft with updates and patches and
service packs, etc. etc. There has been a total of
nearly 100 emails today that have had worms in them.
Thank God for Norton!
Click to expand...


Note first that Microsoft does not send out these types of messages unless
you very specifically request it. Instead, the vast majority of these
messages are attempts to install virus-type programs on your computer.
Therefore, your best bet is to delete these messages without delay (don't
open them or attempt to install them).

If you want to prevent these messages from downloading (large messages
take time to download), set Outlook to not download messages over a certain
size. Somewhere around 25K is a good size, since this will allow most
messages without attachments to download, but will stop most messages with
attachments. At this point, Outlook will download the message header without
the rest of the message, allowing you to see who the message is from. If you
don't want the message, simply delete it (highlight and hit X button). For
messages you want to download, right-click and select download from server.
When you're finished, hit the "send/receive" button again and Outlook will
delete the messages you don't want off the server and fully download the
messages you want. Read help menu about setting maximum download size (it's
an account option, not a filter).


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/
 
Dwight Stewart said:
If you want to prevent these messages from downloading (large messages
take time to download), set Outlook to not download messages over a certain
size. (snip)
Click to expand...


Several people have already asked me how to do this. You can find this
setting in...

Options...
Mail Setup...
Send/Receive Button
Select All Accounts and then press Edit Button.
Download only item description for items larger...

Somewhere around 25K is a good size, since this will allow most messages
without attachments to download, but will stop most messages with
attachments. At this point, Outlook will download only the message header of
large messages, allowing you to see who the message is from. If you don't
want the message, simply delete it (select message and hit X button). For
messages you want to download, right-click and select download from server.
When you're finished, hit the "send/receive" button again and Outlook will
delete the messages you don't want off the server while fully downloading
the messages you do want.

I use this method exactly to avoid those nasty messages claiming to be
Microsoft updates and fixes (works every time). If this also works for you,
please help spread this advice around to help others.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/
 
Back
Top