[Vision2020] Microsoft Outlook question

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Tuesday 04 August 2009 15:41:12 bevbafus at verizon.net wrote:
> Bill and all -- check this link <snip>

Oh, where to start?

First, Microsoft doesn't send out that kind of message. They just update their 
products, and leave the scary details unmentioned.

Second, most of the products listed in the message under Supported Operating 
Systems have not been supported by Microsoft for three or more years, so 
Microsoft would not send that information even if they did send such 
messages. But most people probably don't pay attention to details such as 
Microsoft doesn't support what it considers really old products of its own.

Third, these kinds of scam messages have been being sent by less-than-brights 
for years, and Windows users have been counseled for years not to open e-mail 
messages with attachments from unknown senders. Why? Because of the inherent 
danger of viruses, worms, and other nefarious attacks against computers 
running Microsoft Windows.

But Microsoft isn't an unknown sender, you say! No, but Microsoft doesn't send 
this type of update e-mail, so receiving this type of message purportedly 
from Microsoft should be a red flag event in and of itself.

Well, what to do? The first thing is to check the update status of your 
anti-virus software. (You do have always-active anti-virus software installed 
on every machine that is connected to the Internet, right?) Download the 
latest updates for your brand of anti-virus, and run a scan on the machine 
that received the message. If you have Sophos software, according to the 
Sophos site I just checked, their software has had the ability to detect that 
specific problem since 15:36:00 GMT on 17 June 2009.

By the way, when your message arrived in my e-mail client's folder for 
Vision2020 mail, it had inserted in it a note from my e-mail client that your 
message was sent in HTML format, and as such, would not be opened to activate 
the formatted HTML without my permission. Generally, as a security matter as 
well as a courtesy to mailing list participants, sending HTML formatted 
messages is discouraged. There is a setting in Microsoft Outlook that you can 
set that will cause your Outlook to send only plain-text messages to 
Vision2020, which would help reduce the risk of sending potentially harmful 
messages to the list.


Ken