re: someone using Microsoft's name for bogus email

Dear Microsoft, I love this product and need to report
that just in past week have been receiving Microsoft
Alerts that are not,I feel, from MS. When I open it to
read it, it will say "I am sorry but your message to
QXEC4@AOL.COM could not be delivered,message below. Then
there is no message. I have sent NO messages to any of
these so-called addresses. Now I am almost afraid to open
anything from MS! Please inform me what this is and how I
may handle it? Thank you for your time. Sincerely,
Elizabeth Chapman glitternight_1@hotmail.com

Little did you know, by writing your love letters to
Microsoft, you are also signing up for a bunch of spam and
viruses to be sent to your inbox. Don't use your real
email or edit it in some way so spiders and bots can't
read them!

>-----Original Message-----
>Dear Microsoft, I love this product and need to report
>that just in past week have been receiving Microsoft
>Alerts that are not,I feel, from MS. When I open it to
>read it, it will say "I am sorry but your message to
>QXEC4@AOL.COM could not be delivered,message below. Then
>there is no message. I have sent NO messages to any of
>these so-called addresses. Now I am almost afraid to open
>anything from MS! Please inform me what this is and how I
>may handle it? Thank you for your time. Sincerely,
>Elizabeth Chapman glitternight_1@hotmail.com
>
>.
>

Greetings --

What you received is either a very common malicious hoax or the
output of a computer infected by one of several wide-spread, mass
emailing worms. The most widely-known are:

W32.Swen.A_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.co....swen.a@mm.html

W32.Dumaru_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.co....dumaru@mm.html

W32.Gibe_mm
http://securityresponse.symantec.co...32.gibe@mm.html

Microsoft never has, does not currently, and never will email
unsolicited security patches. At the most, if, and only if, you
subscribe to their security notification newsletter, they will send
you an email informing you that a new patch is available for
downloading.

Microsoft Policies on Software Distribution
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...licy/swdist.asp

Information on Bogus Microsoft Security Bulletin Emails
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../patch_hoax.asp

How to Tell If a Microsoft Security-Related Message Is Genuine
http://www.microsoft.com/security/a...ticate_mail.asp

Any and all legitimate patches and updates are readily available
at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/. (Notice that this is the true
URL, rather than the bogus one that may have been contained in the
email you received.) Any messages that point to any other source(s) or
claim to have the patch attached are bogus.

You're receiving these emails because your email address is in
the address book of someone infected with a worm, and/or because you
posted your real email address somewhere on-line, either in a forum
accessible to the public and spambots, such as Usenet, or on an
untrustworthy web site that subsequently sold your address as part of
a mailing list. One thing you can do is notify _everyone_ with whom
you've ever corresponded via email that one or more of them may be
infected with a mass emailing worm, and should take the appropriate
steps.

There's probably no way of blocking all of the bogus messages, but
you can greatly reduce the number you get by creating a rule, based
upon the most commonly used subject lines, to delete the emails from
the server without ever downloading them.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"mslover" <info@japancentre.com> wrote in message
news:5A764AFC-14A5-4DA4-B777-E8B09C1D32F8@microsoft.com...
> Dear Microsoft, I love this product and need to report
> that just in past week have been receiving Microsoft
> Alerts that are not,I feel, from MS. When I open it to
> read it, it will say "I am sorry but your message to
> QXEC4@AOL.COM could not be delivered,message below. Then
> there is no message. I have sent NO messages to any of
> these so-called addresses. Now I am almost afraid to open
> anything from MS! Please inform me what this is and how I
> may handle it? Thank you for your time. Sincerely,
> Elizabeth Chapman glitternight_1@hotmail.com
>