ATTN: Harry Edwards -- Was: WARNING: YOU WERE SENT A VIRUS

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Harry,

Very interesting.

I looked at the archives of the list

http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/austin-ghetto-list/20040626.txt

and sure enough there were 2 digital files somehow posted
to the list today. Their file names are information.exe and 
Loves_money.exe

With the subject line, Incoming Message.

I just logged on to the above so I'm not sure if you will see it
if you click on it. You may be asked for my password.

In the archive they appear as lines of alphanumeric characters.

Here's what a small part of it looks like:

----------xqpdbupvpohecmkjhnck
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="Loves_money.exe"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Loves_money.exe"

TVoAAAEAAAACAAAA//8AAEAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAC0TM0hAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAkAAAAKkm3RPtR7NA7UezQO1Hs0DtR7NA7kezQGNYoEBtR7NAEWehQOxHs0AqQbVA
7EezQFJpY2jtR7NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUEUAAEwBAwDMD5BAAAAAAAAA
AADgAA8BCwEFDABQAAAAEAAAAJAAAPDiAAAAoAAAAPAAAAAAQAAAEAAAAAIAAAQAAAAAAAAA
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAABAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAAQAAAQAAAAABAAABAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAA
AACk8wAATAIAAADwAACkAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
...

How spammers can post to a closed maillist without themselves 
being subscribers is beyond me. I am occasionally flagged to deal
with a non-subscribed email post to the list. At which point I discard
them. The email address austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net has 
apparently been compromised and yes, in theory these digital 
attachments could infect your computer if you clicked on the file 
name. Which by now you have all learned never to do, right? The 
only safe file names to click on are those which have the 
extension .gif or .jpg

Harry's provider, ev1, flags email with .exe files attached, which saves
their customers from foolishly clicking on an executable and doing
themselves harm.

I can change the name of the list which should make us immune
to this recent problem. Apparently austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net is 
somewhere on a Web page and spammers' software which
spyder Web pages scooped it up. They don't know us and we
don't know them. 

I don't remember seeing Incoming Message today.

A mystery!

More anon.

The Management

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harry Edwards" <laughingwolf@ev1.net>
To: "ghetto survivors" <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 7:19 AM
Subject: Fwd: WARNING: YOU WERE SENT A VIRUS


> Or any knowledge of this one?
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> > From: "postmaster" <postmaster@mail.ev1.net>
> > Date: June 26, 2004 4:14:55 AM CDT
> > To: <laughingwolf@ev1.net>
> > Subject: WARNING: YOU WERE SENT A VIRUS
> > Reply-To: <postmaster@mail.ev1.net>
> >
> > The virus software on ev1.net has reported that you were
> > sent a virus from austin-ghetto-list-admin@pairlist.net, with the 
> > subject "Re: Incoming Message".
> > The E-mail containing the virus has been removed to prevent further 
> > damage.
> >
>