The Word Cloud

How to protect your e-mail address book 

A computer repairman says this is like having gold.  

 This  is a good thing.
I learned a computer trick today that's really ingenious in its simplicity.

As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer  

 it heads straight for your email address book,  

 and sends itself to everyone in there,  

 thus infecting all your friends and associates.

This trick won't keep the virus from getting
into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book
to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has
got into your system.

Here's what you do:

First, open your address book and click on
'new contact,'  

 just as you would do if you were adding  

 a new friend to your list of email addresses.   

 In the window where you would type your
friend's first name, type in 'A'.

For the screen name or email address,  

 type AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA

Now, here's what you've done and why it works:

The 'name 'A' will be placed at the top of your address book  

 as entry #1.

This will be where the worm will start  

 in an effort to send itself to all your friends.

When it tries to send itself to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA,  

 it will be undeliverable  

 because of the phony email address you entered.  

 If the first attempt fails  

 (which it will because of the phoney address),  

 the worm goes no further  

 and your friends will not be infected.

Here's the second great advantage of this method:   

 If an email cannot be delivered,  

 you will be notified of this in your In Box almost immediately.  

 Hence,  

 if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA could not be delivered,  

 you know right away that you have the worm virus  

 in your system.  

 You can then take steps to get rid of it!

Pretty slick huh?

If everybody you know does this  

 then you need not ever worry about opening mail from friends.