[Vision2020] Spam

[Kevin Owen]

While I typically don't respond to issues on V2020 concerning First Step, I
felt this was an important issue to address.  

My staff thoroughly reviewed this potential virus issue today and has
concluded the likelihood of the "spam" email coming from Ms. Pall's computer
to be near 0.  The emails look to have originated from two different ISP's
somewhere in Asia.  Well at least the IP addresses are registered to two
different companies with addresses in Asia.  This can be seen by looking at
the headers of the email.  Jumping to a conclusion the email came from Linda
Pall's computer and that her computer is infected with a virus
un-necessarily points the finger at Linda's computer.  The "from" line on
any email can be very easily spoofed or faked.  This is a common everyday
practice of spammers and is fairly easily detected.  

It is very unlikely the email came from Linda's computer and it wasn't
originally sent through First Step's servers.  (unless of course she is in
Asia somewhere or using an Internet service that uses IP addresses from an
Asia based company) 

I can assure you that if Linda was having a problem with her computer and
she had called us for help, we would have responded in the appropriate
manner.  Additionally, if we had determined Linda in fact had a virus on her
computer, we would take every action possible to help her resolve the issue.
In this case, we weren't contacted by Linda and at this point it does not
appear that she has a virus on her computer. 

We have attempted to contact Linda to further determine the cause and
eliminate her computer if possible.

I don't feel that V2020 is the place for me to address our level of customer
service.  I would encourage anyone if they would like to speak with me
further about this issue or First Step to please feel free to contact me
directly.  

Sincerely,

Kevin Owen
First Step Internet 

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Chasuk
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 10:27 AM
To: Vision2020
Subject: [Vision2020] Spam

I received two pieces of Spam this morning, both ostensibly from Linda
Pall.  You all should have seen them in your Inbox, as they were
addressed to Vision2020.  When I phoned First Strep to inform them
that Linda's machine had likely been compromised, they told me (exact
quote) that they were "too busy" to let her know.

"The normal way that we handle it, is we let the customer discover it
for themselves," they said to me, while acknowledging that they were
aware of the probable infection.

I am grateful to First Step for hosting Vision2020, but I find this a
very poor example of customer service.

Linda, if you are reading this: it is almost certain that your
computer has been infected.  I apologize for letting you know via this
public method.

_____________________________________________________
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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