This is kinda scary.....

[Guest fragg]

This sorta thing makes me nervous. Because like most others, I'm not prepared to deal with it.......

My brother was just sent an "innocent-looking" e-mail message (it had been sneakily "slipped into" a big PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE "mailing" that is sent to many, many people).
It went thru his hard drive like a tornado.
Destroying everything.
When it was finished, his h/d was empty--Blank--Zip--Zero.
Luckily he had some fancy "back-up program" from Adaptec that had copied all his files to a few CD's (prior to the attack) and kept them periodically-updated.
He ran it.
It formatted his h/d and restored everything to where it was just before the attack.
fragg

[Guest crawlie]

One shouldn't open (and especially run) file attachments received from unknown people, and even better, from anyone..

(also, one shouldn't use broken programs like M$ Outlook...)

[Guest fragg]

"......shouldn't use broken proggies like MS Outlook".

Well it's like this: Homeless ragged undernourished Struggling Bill is so busy trying to Take Over World, there's no time left for fixing silly little proggies like Windows.
So in the future, show a little kindness to Underprivileged-of-the-World and give Poor Bankrupt Bill some sympathy (maybe even a food package) will ya?

[sirgalahadwizar]

That is why I do NOT use my provider's email, and use hotmail instead. If it fries any computer, it will most likely be a public computer (and since it's a service like hotmail, it possibly protects emails from all the crap that gets put into them).

[stphrz]

Not to mention, Hotmail (or Yahoo for that matter) is less laggy than my service provider's email. It's also easier and faster, probably because I don't have to deal with Outlook(spit).

[SaGa]

crawlie said:

One shouldn't open (and especially run) file attachments received from unknown people, and even better, from anyone..

(also, one shouldn't use broken programs like M$ Outlook...)

the only reson to open attachments is if it from someone you know and trust. but not from spam thats just plain stupid (bwt isnt there java stuff that might wip your computer just by LOOKING AT THE EMAIL

[SirRobin]

No message attachment is going to run itself... And it's really stupid to open & run unknown attachments. If the mail program started the attachment without asking (could OE do something like this? I would expect utter idiocy like that from MS) then I should recommend to change mail program immediately!

[Guest crawlie]

SaGa said:

(bwt isnt there java stuff that might wip your computer just by LOOKING AT THE EMAIL

Yeah, that's funny, what the f*ck do email programs do with JAVA? Or even JavaScript? Or HTML? Or auto-running .exe/.vbs/whatever-attachments, or word/excel documents with destructive macros inside them?

I think it's the user's own stupid ignorance if (s)he uses such programs (doesn't that mean mainly only MS Outlook -- you all probably do know that there are other email programs available , even on Windoze I believe, so nobody is really forced to use crappy webmail things :)).
I've once got my HD wiped out because of a trojan program, like... five years ago, and I really wouldn't want that to happen again. And I'm quite sure it won't happen, at least not because someone sends me funny email. It's even quite easy.

[Arioch]

SirRobin said:

No message attachment is going to run itself... And it's really stupid to open & run unknown attachments. If the mail program started the attachment without asking (could OE do something like this? I would expect utter idiocy like that from MS) then I should recommend to change mail program immediately!

It is utterly impossible for a reasonably up-to-date Outlook 2000 to run an attachment automatically. (I suggest going to officeupdate.microsoft.com) All executable attachments are blocked from access through 2 confirmation dialogs, and if you have e-mail security zone set to secure (like it is by default) no potentially dangerous scripts in the e-mail body will trigger either.

Bottom line: keep up with the security updates. They're there for a reason.

I might also note that the recent spate of e-mail transmitted viri are not script viri, but are actual executables that infect your system but use the e-mail system to transmit itself. This means that you don't even need an e-mail client to be infected (although the possibility becomes remote) and you most certainly don't need a e-mail client to be the source of further infection.

http://arioch.despayre.ath.cx/txt/virus.txt
(This rather prevalent virus is not dependent on your e-mail client)