Has anyone else received an e-mail with nothing in it but the word " Bhopal" ?

[RepublicanReptile]

My Mother received anb e-mail today with the sender listed as " Suffocating G Colleen" When she read it the only thing written in the e-mail was " Bhopal". Mom is worried because today is the anniversary of some sort of disaster in Bhopal India where a lot of people were gassed. She just called me to say that about an hoour ago there was a false alarm of it happening again and also something in Ireland. What do you think this is? Just SPAM, or something more worriesome?

[rogue yam]

She’s real fine my 409
She’s real fine my 409
My 409

Well I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes
(giddy up giddy up 409)
For I knew there would be a time
(giddy up giddy up 409)
When I would buy a brand new 409
(409, 409)
Giddy up giddy up giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 40...

Nothing can catch her
Nothing can touch my 409
409 ooooo
(giddy up giddy up oooo)
(giddy up giddy up oooo)
(giddy up giddy up oooo)
(giddy up giddy up)

When I take her to the track she really shines
(giddy up giddy up 409)
She always turns in the fastest times
(giddy up giddy up 409)
My four speed dual quad posi-traction 409
(409, 409, 409, 409)

Giddy up giddy up giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 409
(giddy up giddy up 409)
Giddy up 40...

Nothing can catch her
Nothing can touch my 409
(409 409 409 409)
Giddy up 409
(409 409 409 409)
Giddy up 409
(409 409 409 409)

[rogue yam]

Ooops, mispelled your name...

[RepublicanReptile]

All my mother said when she called me was that there were a whole bunch of hoaxes about gas leaks etc. happening world wide, specifically something in Ireland and something in India. She wanted me to FReep it for her, and she is my mom, and we all love our moms. So sorry if I have irritated y'all, but my mom is happy.

[JennysCool]

mom is happy.

That's what counts -- and thanks for the heads-up. That e-mail DOES sound a little ominous.

[dansangel]

I feel - *unworthy*. I have heard of these scams but have never recieved one - unless it got zapped by my spam blocker.

Yeah - that's it. I've probably received 100's of them! See? I *am* important!

:-)

[dansangel]

Um, Beach Boys - right?

Or, was it Jan and Dean......hmmmmm

[Xenalyte]

Tell your mother - nay, command her if you must - NEVER to open any e-mail the sender of which she does not know personally.

That won't save her from viri, especially if she (like Xena's Mom) is a die-hard AOL user, but it'll create a tad less hair-pulling for you.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Sometimes they include nothing in there except a 1x1 pixel graphic that alerts the SPAMmer that the e-mail was opened -- and who viewed it.

That is one of the reasons why I use Benign, made by Firetrust (they also make Mailwasher). It scrubs all those nasty things out of e-mails, and gives an extra layer of protection on top of up-to-date virus definitions.

[RepublicanReptile]

Thanks. I have a friend doing a little investigation on it for her too. You all know how mom's are, she was ready to send it to HomeLand Security. Part of her paranoia is she is the Assistant Treasurer of an Anti-Illegal immigration PAC. So things like that can flip her out. Thanks to everyone who has had something helpful to say so far.

[Xenalyte]

Tell her that I am affiliated with a like organization here in Texas, that my name and home address and phone number are all over the 'Net, and that I have yet to have one single issue resulting therefrom.

Not that it'll make her feel better, if she's of the mentality that says it's okay to open e-mails from total strangers, but it can't hurt.

[HairOfTheDog]

About that DELETE button.

Yes, it appears to be junk mail.

Never never never open anything from a stranger.

Lots of people who are in business, or have published their email as a contact address, get real mail from strangers. I don't think most people can function under those rules.

BTW there is nothing magically safe about 'knowing' the person who sent you the email. More often than not, a virus WILL come from someone you know, someone who has you in their address book. It isn't personal, that's just how they are spread. That person may or may not be the name that appears as the sender. The smart way is to keep your virus software up to date, and be smart about attachments. don't open ones that you wouldn't expect, and not files executable type files. If you don't know what it is, ask the sender. Just be prudent.

She might want to run her virus scan too.

Her virus software should have already been running, and have scanned it coming in.

[.38sw]

My mom, too, is a die-hard AOL user. Sometimes even the command not to open something from someone you don't know won't help. I had gotten a couple of emails from my cousin, who also has my mom's email address in her address book. I'm pretty sure the emails were passing on one of those virii that use an infected user's address book and sends itself along. I had opened the email since I knew her, but there was no content. the email properties indicated, however, that the email had 146kb to it. Interesting. I think that my virus scanner nabbed it before anything happened - I ran a virus scan, and no virus was found.

[mhx]

I think she's right to pay attention to things that are out of the ordinary like that. Hopefully, it's nothing, but we all have to keep our eyes open.

[fish hawk]

There was a sick joke going around back then:

Who killed more Indians than John Wayne?

answer: Union Carbide

[Chad Fairbanks]

Approximately 3,800 people died and several thousand others suffered injuries.

[Xenalyte]

Part of the problem is that AOL's "virus protection" sucks rhino. My mother has gotten every damn virus that's come down the pike for the past two years, and I have to clean her PC up because she refuses to run Norton LiveUpdate and get new virus definitions.

Clicking OK when LiveUpdate asks her if it's okay to get online and update her virus definitions is "too complicated" for a woman who built and ran a library from the ground up.

And she wonders why I refuse to talk tech when I go over there. I don't know how to explain that it's 'cause she doesn't keep hard liquor enough to make AOL bearable.

[onyx]

Hey johniegrad,
welcome to our olympic panel...lol.

A 4 sounds right to me,
considering the honesty.

[John Jorsett]

I keep getting one that tells me that I need to update my paypal account that I don't have, I'm not opening that one either.

I opened it, even though I know it's a scam. I went to their scam site in several guises and "updated" my info with a series of different screen names and passwords. May as well make them waste a little time if nothing else.

[.38sw]

I don't even know if my mom has any other virus protection besides what AOL offers. If it's not any better than AOL's "spyware" protection, then it's useless. AOL's spyware runs, and finds nothing, while Spybot runs and find 14 or so files. Hmmmmm.

My mom lives an 11 hr drive from me, so I can't help her with her computer. I've tried to talk her through things on the phone, but it's useless. She doesn't even know enough to explain what's happening, and what she sees on the screen. *sigh*