I generally do the same. The thing that gets me though about the more recent viruses that I have received are that they come under the cover of familiar people. Not always people I commonly communicate with but none the less familiar like some of the people here on The Chipboard whom I recognize or may have done business with or debated an issue through email.

I correspond with a good number of people from work, bowling, social contacts and such and we frequently are sending around forwarded friendship letters or jokes. I have sent all of them a copy of what I posted here, as a warning, because that email just seemed so much like the kind of thing that would get innocently distributed by unsuspecting friends. It is getting sad that now you have to suspect every photo, joke or other attachment that a friend might send because it might not be legitimate. What is this world comming to when you have to keep a suspicious eye on mail from friends. OH WELL...

I do keep an eye out though for anything that JDNLR (JUST DOES NOT LOOK RIGHT) A lot of times there will be some thing that will be a tip off. Like an attachment, like a tax spreadsheet, that doesn't seem to fit the text of a letter like say a friendship letter. Or, say, a legal document from a fellow chipper. I understand that often the viruses will take a file off of an infected computer and attach itself and send to other people. If I were to get a Notice of Motion that could have been harvested from one of our lawyer friends and it was sent to me by someone whom I recognize as a casino employee that might not look right to me.

Like you say, Delete everything unless you can be certain that it is legit and doesn't smell fishy... If I am in doubt I usually send a simple note to the sender to confirm if they sent it and it was safe. On AOL, with all it's faults, one of the things I appreciate most is that I can't get hit unless I personally select the button that says "Download Now?". I can usually hold a mail in my in my in box until I get a confirmation. The attachment will then stay on AOL's Server. Not on my computer. To be honest, Every time I have replied for a confirmation I have received a frantic reply saying something like OH Sh**, DELETE IT!!!!

Thanks for your replies and posts,

Happy Holidays!!!