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Re: Virus Hoax

On Tue, 10 Feb 1998 ChroniAbaloni@webtv.net wrote:

> Not to keep the discussion going, but personally, I'd be thanking Tim,
> if only for the sentiments. I know eveyone's tired of the hoaxes, but
> there may be such a thing as an e-mail virus out there somewhere
> apparently.

Well, not really, because a virus is an embedded program.  When you open
an email, you aren't running any program, and you aren't actually
downloading anything onto your own drive.  If you download something onto
your drive then you could infect your machine, but it can't do it by
itself.  These hoaxes thrive on this misunderstanding of "where" email is.
No virus can go into your computer simply by you reading the mail.

What you should be careful about is emails with added applications that
you don't know the identity of.  Most times these are because of people
using Netscape to send mail with a wrong setting.  But never download or
run an application if you don't know the person it came from or what it
is.

Bob
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