Hundreds of Emails from "Microsoft"

Hello,

Since about September 2003, I have been receiving between 80 to 100 emails
per day from an unknown source claiming to be Microsoft. The email is a
virus or a worm known as "Swen". It is a very serious virus for Microsoft
Windows users but fortunately for myself in the case of this particular
virus, I have a Mac computer and so far it doesn't seem to affect Mac
computers. My computer is a blue and white G3 running OS 9.2.2. I also have
OS 10.1 which I use occasionally and the virus emails appear in OS10.1 as
well showing up in my OS10 Mac Mail program. I tried the "bounce back"
feature of the OS 10.1 mail program and it didn't stop the virus emails from
coming. On my OS 9.2.2 I now use MS Outlook Express 5.0.3. I really don't
know what to do next to stop all this email spam. All the help I have seen
from my research into this virus mostly applies to Windows users but no
where can I find any suggestions how to stop these hundreds of "Microsoft"
spam emails from continuing to arrive. Perhaps the virus is coming from
within my computer and duplicating itself? I really don't know.

Here are some of the other names this virus has been known as:

Win32.Swen@mm virus
W32.Gibe@mm
Swen-A

The email begins with the following line:

this is the latest version of security update, the "October 2003, Cumulative
Patch" update

The next email that comes automatically whether you do anything or not
reads:
Subject:
Undeliverable Message: User unknown
I'm sorry to have to inform you that I wasn't able to deliver your message
to the following addresses


I just updated my Norton Virus Definition files (definitions dated Oct 1)
and ran an antivirus scan of my harddrive and there is no problem with my
Mac computer. So I would guess my computer is OK.

The big problem however is the fact that I am still receiving 100 emails per
day with this virus and it is time consuming to be constantly deleting them.
I even tried rebuilding my mailbox (recompress by holding the option key
when rebooting Outlook). No luck.

This has become a problem because it is clogging my incoming mail and every
hour of the day I must delete these annoying emails. How can I prevent these
emails from arriving in my email inbox? I cannot change my email address due
to specific reasons. Am I going to have to delete these hundreds of emails
everyday for years to come?

I don't use any spam filters and I am reluctant to give in to using these.
There must be a way to get to the root of the problem. I see that other
people are having the same problem as I describe but one response to the
suggestion to create different mail rules was the problem is that the emails
are coming from different email addresses, with different subject lines, and
different attachments each time. There must be a way to stop this.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

PS It really makes you wonder what kind of people write these destructive
viruses like this. I do hope one day these people will find their joy or
their fulfillment in their lives some other way.


Michael Ryznar
Burnaby BC
Canada

On 10/10/03 1:03 AM, "Michael Ryznar" <info.RemoveThis@ryznardesign.com> wrote:

 > I don't use any spam filters and I am reluctant to give in to using these.
 > There must be a way to get to the root of the problem. I see that other
 > people are having the same problem as I describe but one response to the
 > suggestion to create different mail rules was the problem is that the emails
 > are coming from different email addresses, with different subject lines, and
 > different attachments each time. There must be a way to stop this.

Hi Michael!

The SWEN virus' name is NEWS spelled backwards. This virus scans newsgroups
for email addresses and then spams them using infected Windows systems.

The only defense in this case is a good offense. Rather than posting a real
email address ANYWHERE in public, try obfuscating it. I've done this with
mine and it helps tremendously.

Viruses aren't particularly smart or care about getting email addresses
correct. They're just dumb beasts sending to anything they can. If you
obfuscate your address then it will essentially send the message to an
address that doesn't exist. Of course, if you want someone to really send
you a message then you need to provide instructions for how to determine the
real address.

Until email servers implement better spam controls and infected Windows
users are properly patched, you'll continue to receive these messages.

Microsoft does not send unsolicited email. If you have not subscribed to any
newsletters or announcements from Microsoft, you can simply create a few
rules based on Microsoft's name such as "Microsoft" and "patch" or "fix" or
in the Subject.

Hope this helps! bill
--
William M. Smith
(Microsoft Interop MVP)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->