>Cleve--will you explain to me and perhaps a few other dummies what a
>spammed message is and how to recognize it and avoid receiving it?  Thanks.
>
>Ed B.


Ed (and others),

"Spam" is a term (borrowed from a Monty Python skit, actually) to
refer to unwanted and unsolicited email. Often it advises of
supposedly great investment opportunities, which not surprisingly
turn out to be not so great.

It's the electronic equivalent of vinyl siding telemarketing calls,
and it's a major headache to a lot of people using email,
particularly those with dial-up connections. Spammers often go to
great  lengths to disguise their place, even their country, of
origin. They often attack the servers of legitimate communities of
interest -- big ones such as AOL and smaller ones such as the WMUB
list. They may not be members of the list community themselves, or
pass themselves off as if they are.

In the case I wrote about, a spam message apparently went to several
on the WMUB list. One member of the list wrote back to the list to
cancel his participation. Naturally that's something we don't want to
have happen. Miami's MCIS, as I mentioned, does a good job of
detecting apparent spam attacks, but occasionally one will slip
through.

Spam can be thoroughly annoying, but the best course is always to
delete the offending message rather than replying to it. Truly sneaky
spam messages may invite readers to write back to "cancel" the
message. In reality this tells the spammers that you're paying
attention, and thus invites further attacks.

And NEVER open email attachments that you receive unless you can
thoroughly vouch for the integrity and intentions of the sender and
his/her message. Merely opening an email cannot give your computer a
virus, but opening or executing an infected attachment certainly can.
This is how viruses propagate.

As with our new web site, we're committed to making every aspect of
your relationship with WMUB as useful as possible. We'll try to help
you out in any way that we can if we see more problems. Thanks.


WMUB list administrator
replies: mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.wmub.org
Talk show pages: http://www.wmub.org/today.html
Subscribe to this list at: http://www.wmub.org/wmublist.html