# How to stop a virus infiltrating your address book



## radgy (Jun 14, 2007)

Hi. I came across this great tip the other day and thought I would share it.
This is a very good thing; a computer trick 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 gotten 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 [email protected]
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 [email protected], it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered. If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and none of your friends will 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 [email protected] 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!


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## Ratboy (Feb 12, 1999)

Or not. See Snopes.com link below

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.asp


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## radgy (Jun 14, 2007)

I agree. At least you'll get the AAA email back and know you have a virus rather than have it sitting on your hard drive for a period of time without knowing its there .


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Or simply have AV and spyware protection running and not get the virus in the first place.


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## radgy (Jun 14, 2007)

I have anti virus software on my computer. New viruses are popping up all the time, keeping the anti virus companies busy. The more ways a person has to detect them the better. This is not a cure, just another tool that may turn out useful if someone writes a new virus that goes undetected until it is discovered and a new definition written to protect against it.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

As pointed out, it's not really a tool, but rather a placebo that will make you think you're doing something useful, but you're really not.


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## radgy (Jun 14, 2007)

Sorry for sharing an idea. I'll keep any to my self in future.


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

radgy said:


> Sorry for sharing an idea. I'll keep any to my self in future.


Don't be....it's good to bring these ideas out for discussion.
Now we know


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you'd rather go through life believing stuff like this, then I advise you to not tell anyone. OTOH, if you'd actually like to know if it's a useful technique, then I'd suggest asking.


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