No emails from me

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Country Families : One Thread

I have 2 emails today one from stan one from mountain momma ,I dont read emails I am not expecting to recieve from anyone other than family members so I not sure what they said but they subject line had the word password in it.I dont really believe mountain momma emailed me,but if you did sorry I deleted your message,you can contact me on here ,I dont post but I do read.I am proably an easy target for some one to use my email address because I dont say much but if you get an email from me it isnt me just delete it.I will not give the password to anyone.I enjoy reading here sometimes I laugh with you,sometimes I cry with you,always I learn with you.willa in IL.goodall6@hotmail.com

-- willa in IL. (goodall6@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002

Answers

That is a little strange. Please all of you be careful opening e- mails... I hope we can keep the password "safe." I do not even want to think about another episode like we have had before. So everyone just try to hang tight until we move to the new site. On it you will be able to know who is on-line!!! It will be pretty nifty, I promise...

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), May 08, 2002.

I'm nervous about giving up Lusenet. Keep on telling us how nice it will be:)

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), May 08, 2002.

No it was NOT me! Now, I am getting worried!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

I think someone whom I will not name is very upset with me. I have never, ever gotten junk in my isp box like virus, porn etc. and it has been happening big time since the big blow up. Keep your virus scanner up to date is all I can say!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.

Yea, I started getting it for the first time after the first fallout.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), May 08, 2002.


I also have been getting E mails, Strange sounding, I just delete,One did say sex with a lot of symbales behind it.

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), May 08, 2002.

Karen, one thing to consider...........willa asked a question on your forum about getting here, you answered. If she didn't uncheck the little box, she got e-mail from you.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.

Ladies, do you belong to yahoogroups? If so--that may be the answer to your problems about suddenly and recently starting to receive unsavory and strange emails. Recently they changed their policy and have started selling email addresses. Someone posted this on the Countryside forum and this is what you do to stop it (of course once your email address gets out there it has a life of it's own...):

Go to http://www.yahoo.com/

Click 'Check Email'

Click 'Options'

Click 'Account Information'

Verify your password

You're now on the page that says, 'Review My Account Information'. About half way down the page, Click 'Edit your marketing preferences.' Click 'no' for all of them.

Be sure to go all the way down to 'Other Delivery' and click 'no' for 'via U.S. mail' and 'via phone.'

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.


I don't belong to any thing with yahoo-----& I have been getting them also!!!!!!!

-- Sonda in Ks. (sgbruce@birch.net), May 08, 2002.

Thank you Ann. I have handled that problem. What has happened to me is that Phil by accident sent out my isp with a reminder of the backup forum when lucenet went down. That coupled with our recent problems has set my home address aflame with 7 virus laden e-mails just today. I am just sick, since my home address has always been reserved for just my closest friends and family and it has been so nice up until now. The yahoo address is the only one I have ever used on a forum or any public place, but I used my home address once to communicate with Phil about the CD. I can not say for sure that it is stan, since there are others that were on that list who have felt that I was a bad person and mean. I would like to think it was not from that, but can not imagine how it could be anything else. I am beginning to think that getting involved with these forums was a bad thing for my life, but then I sure have met some neat people....some of them even in person.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.


I just delee everything that I don't recognize...It is hard as I am curious! But I have not had any virus troubles or bad messages that I know of...

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), May 08, 2002.

I belong to several online 'groups' and my policy is, if you want to get in touch with me, you know where to find me (on the group). I do not open ANYTHING that I am not expecting -- with few exceptions (i.e., personal friends). I maintain three separate email addresses, and two are "generic" @hotmail & @yahoo.

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

FYI I received a very ugly porno e-mail the other day with a subject line something like "your password". It was a virus! It was from a hotmail address, and when I checked it out it was from a very nice, decent lady from one of my livestock groups, who happened to have my addy in her address book. I knew she wasn't into that stuff, so I contacted some computer geeks and they told me it was a "KLEZ" (?) virus. So DON'T open any e-mail you aren't expecting.

I also thought it was because of Yahoo when I first started getting the porn and viruses. I was inclined to think it was because I was signed up on a yahoo group...although I'd used yahoogroups for a long time with no problems. Finally it dawned on me one day that I am also signed up at yahoo groups with 2 other e-mail addresses, and I have never received any porn, ads, viruses or anything though them. So in my case anyway, they are off the list of suspects. I even participate in several different livestock forums using the other addresses, and have yet to have any problem. The address I have used on CS and CF is the one only one that has had bad stuff sent to it.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@nospam.com), May 08, 2002.


Oh come on people this paranoid act is getting a bit much. "Will not open email unless I am excpecting the mail". Kind limits the use of email. Any email is safe to read if you take proper steps. Reading and email and opening an attachment are not the same.

The first thing you should have is a good virus checker. This mean spending some money and getting a good one that has regular updates. Macafee, norton are a couple. Stay away from cheap/free products that may not catch the latest and greatest virus.

Make sure the virus checker interfaces with your email program. This way any virus sent to you is cleaned before it ever gets to your machine.

Next step is to use a good email program, OUTLOOK and OUTLOOK EXPRESS are NOT!!! good email programs. They are spreading most of the virus on the internet now. Look for another reader, Eudora is one I would recommend. It has a ad based free version and a no ad commerical version.

Then whatever you use to read email, know how to use it. Configure it properly. Setup your email reader to Ignore HTML headers in email. There is no reason for someone to send email with html in it. Aside from a links to a site, html is just fluff.. Set it to not open any attachment automaticly. Set it to Never open .exe,.pif files.

Some simple steps can allow you to use email as it should be used.

Been on the internet for 22years and never been infected by a virus. Recieve them on a very regular basis but they dont get a chance to infect my machine.

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 09, 2002.


Good advice Gary, but I guess my motto is "Better safe than sorry!!" Usually I recognize the person's name or address, but if I don't I delete! Most messages are not life or death situations, although I did open one once from some guy in South Africa, and his situation was pretty dire!!! He just needed my bank account number so he could deposit a huge sum of money before he was killed by rebel forces... I hope they didn't get him... (LOL)

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), May 09, 2002.


Well, Gary, I don't worry for myself as I cannot get any virus nor pass one along, but I know all too many people who have had to go through great frustration and expense because of cerain e-mails they have opened. Many people are still new to computers and don't know all they should about which programs they need or what they should do to avoid viruses. At the rate these new viruses are being thought up, even more knowledgeable people who thought they were well protected have found themselves paying for repairs or having to buy new computers.

We own 3 computers, one brand new, and we aren't online with any of them, only our webtv which we use for forums and e-mail. And I have enough problems with that. Quite often I open e-mail which is from a friend or someone from my discussion groups and it turns out to be a virus, some of which pop up without opening an attachment. Doesn't hurt me any but what a nightmare for whoever unknowingly passed it to me. Many of these folks can't afford the repairs or cost of replacing their unit. Pretty sad for some little old lady or gentleman who just wants to visit a little with other folks or wants some advice on taking care of their goat or chickens.

Besides the viruses, the porno gets pretty bad. Some of you may see it as a minor annoyance but for various reasons it can affect certain people a great deal. Much better not to open e-mail from unknown sources. Some days or weeks I am bombarded with it until it nearly shuts down my e-mail because it takes up so much storage space. It is so bad at times that the webtv people have advised me to shut down the address I am using or block all e-mail to it. I havenn't resorted to that (yet) but I don't open e-mail from unknown sources anymore! Like Melissa says, it's better to just delete!

-- Lenette (kigervixen@nospam.com), May 09, 2002.


There is a new virus going around that could be causing some of the problems. It's pretty tricky because when it sends itself out, it picks one name out of your address book for the recipient and then it takes another address and uses it as the sender. So for example, if I had the virus on my computer it could send out a message to diane that looked like it was sent by Melissa because I have both of their addresses in my address book.

-- Sherri C in Central Indiana (CeltiaSkye@xaol.com), May 09, 2002.

My internet provider doesn't deliver anything like junk mail or virus mail. I still have my Norton updated all the time. I go to a page on my internet providers list and see all that they are saving to be dumped in a 14 day time period and it is crazy. Some they could have delivered like any answers to my posting on countryside but the rest is beyond me of why I am getting those types of emails. Mostly, horrible type sex junk. How did those crazies get my email and why would they waste their time in emailing. Obviously after no response on the first 20 emails you would think they would go to a different list. I am so glad that these junk emails are no longer coming to my computer!!

-- debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), May 09, 2002.

Two things: our computer expert friend says that there are some viruses which are activated just by clicking on the e-mail to read it; you don't have to open the attachment to get the virus. We now use Pegasus and click on 'selective mail download'. This way we can keep unwanted mail from even coming into the computer.

Also, we have an alarm system on which detects viruses before they do anything. What this is, is a system that stops viruses from messing up your hard drive, sounds a loud alarm, and asks you if you want the virus to do this. You then know you've been hit and can delete the thing before it does any damage.

-- Cathy N. (eastern Ontario) (homekeeper86@sympatico.ca), May 09, 2002.


Melissa, Knowing or not knowing who is sending you a virus doesnt solve the problem. Most outlook/express virus infect people's email program and send the virus out from people you know. Most people dont have random users in their address book usually people they know and email on some regular basis.

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 09, 2002.

Lenette, Does your web tv know its a viurs and tell you? Seeing a bunch of uninteligent junk characters is usually not a sign of a virus. Usually just that someone is using an 8bit message file. Very common outside the US. If an email program is opening an attachment without you clicking on it then your email program is not configured correctly. in Outlook this can be turned off, by defualt it is not.

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 09, 2002.

As noted in my orginal messages. If your seening pop us or your mail program is running attachments without you doing anything then your program is not setup. Outlook/express users. Secure your boxes.

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 09, 2002.

I have been keeping my address book empty, since I have been sending and receiving a large number of e-mails lately. Don't know if it helps any...

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), May 09, 2002.

I use outlook express and have it configured so it does not open anything unless I click on it. If I get e-mail from someone I don't know and it has an attachment........I just delete it. I didn't know about that particular virus Sherri.....perhaps that is what is happening, but I don't know any of the the seven people that I got attachments with virus in them, nor the one today.

Gary, I don't see were deleting unexpected e-mail from people you don't know has anything to do with paranoia or defeating the purpose of e-mail. I DON'T want e-mail from people I don't know, and only accept attachments from my children and closest friends, and I have an up to date Norton's. I hate all the alarms and crap that happen when you try to open one that is infected. It really gives me anxious attacks. So I just delete..............to bad, e-mail is for MY convienence, just like the telephone. I pay the bill and I use it like I want to use it.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 09, 2002.


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