Corse said:
I just got an email from someone I don't know and not addressed to me
which is a duplicate of an email that I received a couple of weeks
ago from someone I do know and from whom I expected an email. What
is the new email? Is it the result of some kind of virus? Anyone
see something like this?
Corse
Corse:
It could be spam or it could be a virus or both. Make sure that your
anti-virus is up to date.
A common way that viruses spread is as follows:
1) the virus arrives by email as an attachment
2) the virus is "installed" on an unprotected computer by opening the
attachment
3) the virus gets email addresses from your email program from either your
address book or message store
4) the virus emails itself off to all of the addresses it finds.
This is the standard operating procedure for MANY viruses!
A common way that spam is spread is as follows:
1) a spamming virus arrives an attachment and is "installed" on an
unprotected computer by opening the attachment -or- a spamming program is
installed by the spammer on an unprotected computer without a firewall
2) the spamming program turns the computer into a mail-server accessed by
the spammers who continue to use the computer to spread spam until a
firewall detects the outgoing program actions.
Recently, I read where one of the main sources of spam in the U.S.A. was
from such "spam zombies" belonging to the customers of one very big cable
Internet Service provider.
The moral of the story is to get a good anti-virus, and use a firewall (both
software and hardware prefered).
Steve
