Returned email and virus warnings

for messages you never sent

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A division of PC Mobile, Inc.

Many e-mail users are receiving notices of returned mails indicating that virus-infected and other mail was sent from their e-mail account. PC Mobile has received many questions about this issue, especially because the returned e-mails were originally sent to addresses that the respective users do not recognize. In most instances, these e-mails are being generated by other peoples' virus-infected computers using forged e-mail addresses, so there is no cause for concern.

There are a number of viruses floating around that propagate by sending mail from an infected Windows computer. The virus sends mail that purports to be from a random e-mail address selected from the infected computer's address book. If you are receiving returned mail from e-mail addresses that are not familiar to you and that are not in your address book, someone you know likely has an infected computer that is sending e-mails with your e-mail address as the return address. This is known as forged e-mail and it explains why the e-mails are getting bounced back to you instead of the real sender.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for virus-borne forged e-mail short of encouraging your Windows-using friends to update their anti-virus definitions and run full scans on their computers as soon as possible. As always, all users should do the same for their own computers to be safe. If this note describes your situation accurately, your virus definitions are up to date and a virus-scan reveals no viruses, just delete these mails and continue working normally. Though the current volume of infected e-mail and subsequent returned mails is very high, we expect this particular virus to subside as computers eventually gain the proper virus protection and the virus is eventually contained.

Use Bcc to e-mail multiple recipients

Just a tip: during these times of frequent computer virus attacks, it is best to use the Bcc field instead of the To field for addressing e-mails to groups of people. Viruses spread by sending themselves to everyone on the recipient list of every e-mail that comes in. So if you send an e-mail to 10 people, and one of them has a virus on their computer, all 10 will get the virus. However, if you use the Bcc: field instead of the To: field, the virus will not be able to see the other addresses.

Protect the privacy of your recipients' e-mail addresses. The polite way to send e-mail to a large group of people—a change of e-mail address, a joke, and so on—is to put the recipients' names in the Bcc (blind carbon copy) line. Names and e-mail addresses in the Bcc line are invisible to everyone who receives your message; when a recipient opens the message, only the sender's name appears (in the To line).

Outlook, if Bcc: isn’t showing, create a message, and from the View menu, click Bcc: Field.
Outlook Express: click View >All Headers.
Gmail: Click the Add Bcc link below the recipient box.
Netscape: click the TO: button, then double-click Bcc:.
AOL: put the Bcc: addresses in the “Copy To” box, using parentheses and separating each address with a comma.
Yahoo!: click Add Bcc:.
Mac: Open a new email. In the bottom left of the title block is the Customize button. a menu opens, click on “Bcc Address Field”.