Gretchen and fellow-ATEGers,
 
I'm no expert, but the structure of that email looks like the class virus-carrying email: It claims to come from a source that you know, and it claims that YOU have sent something that had a virus in it. It then says to "see attached document" for details.
 
Since you didn't knowingly send a virus, you are tempted to click the attachment to see what's going on. DON'T DO IT!  :-) That attachment is where the virus really is, and if you click it, your computer, and perhaps your whole network, will be infected.
 
To answer Gretchen's question, the way this usually happens is that someone's email gets hijacked this way (that is, they DO click on the attachment) and the virus then sends these kinds of messages to everyone on that person's mailing list, including listservs. There are other ways it can happen, but this is one of the most common.
 
So, for us to get this kind of email, someone on the ATEG list must be infected--or at least was infected at some point in the recent past. One solution is to never open any attachment that comes from a source you do not know, or that makes a claim (like the one we're discussing) that you know or suspect isn't true.
 
Let's be careful out there . . .
 
 
Tim Hadley
Ph.D. candidate, Technical Communication and Rhetoric
Texas Tech University

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Gretchen Lee
Sent: Mon 4/12/2004 12:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Email from ATEG with an Attachment?


Hi,
 
I just received an email that looked like it was from ATEG that had an attachment.  The header was something like "Returned due to virus." The attachment purported to be a movie.
 
Did someone's address book get hijacked or was this really from ATEG?  I thought attachments were stripped off.  Am I mistaken?  (I know that all the other lists I'm on ban attachments, so I may be confused.)
 
Thanks,
Gretchen
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