[R] S & R list virus warning

[Paul Gilbert]

It appears that someone has harvested email addresses from the S-news or
one of the R lists and is sending out viruses. The mail does not come
from the lists, but appears to come from people on these lists. (Closer
examination of the headers indicates that it does not really come from
the person indicated in the "from" field.) The mail is probably directed
to people on these lists as well as others. I have received at least
three already. The most recent one has the subject line "Introduction on
ADSL" and a previous one had the subject line "A good tool".

The messages are infected with the WORM_KLEZ.G virus in an attachment.

I am not sure what mechanisms can be used to deter spammers from
harvesting email addresses from lists, but something should be
considered. One thing I know people have tried is to put blanks or other
characters into the publicly displayed addresses on  lists. This means
that people can read the lists and figure out an email address, but
simple automatic tools are foiled. Another possibility is to not make
the addresses  available.

I realize I can ask that my name be hidden on the list, but that breaks
the original intent of having names available: to be able to know who
else is involved in the list community.

Paul Gilbert
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