Agh! Ruel's Email Address is Being Barraged and Attacked by Virus-Infected Email from Infected PC Users! The SPAM Virus-Infected Email have Forged "From:" email addresses that could say the spam is from you, me, your friends, or from anyone! Ruel's systems are clean with no viruses but Ruel really needs your help to clean up everyone's systems to stop the Virus Spam Problem! PLEASE NOTE: Ruel Does **NOT** Send Spam. If you received spam with my regular email address ( ruel @ pobox .com ) or from an address that says @ ruel.net (for example: webmaster @ ruel.net )-- that spam was **NOT** sent by me BUT was Sent By Someone's Virus-Infected Computer which happens to have my email address somewhere in the internet files on the infected computer's harddrive. FYI, I have had my regular email address ( ruel @ pobox . com ) since about 1996 and never had this problem before. Now, the spam and virus-infected email have gotten so terrible in recent times. This problem with spam and virus-infected address-stealing email is unfortunately so widespread all across the web affecting so many people because there are people out there who do not protect their PCs with anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Please keep reading below about this problem and find out what to do to help eliminate and prevent this terrible gawdawful spam virus problem. My system is NOT infected and I ask you to help by disinfecting your PC.

This is NOT an advertisement. This is a personal note from me to you. Please read this page because I need your help. I would not normally want to post an administrative announcement like this, but the problem has been getting to be rather pesky. I normally refrain from using pop-under windows (this may be a pop-up for Netscape / Mozilla users; for some browsers, this may be tacked onto the end of the front PC-TV intro page or onto the end of the main news page), but I hope to get your attention regarding this important anti-virus issue. So, please consider this to be a Public Service Announcement.

My email address has been barraged by a multitude of pesky virus-infected email messages sent from PC users. (Set-top users don't really have to worry about this problem except if they are on the receiving end of this problem.) Please keep reading so you will understand the terrible multiple effects that the very devious virus-infected spam email has both on you and on me.

Fortunately, I use several anti-virus security processes and procedures at both the network level and the local PC level as multiple lines of defense for detecting and zapping both blatant spam email advertisements and those pesky gawdawful virus-infected email. But I had to unfortunately turn on the anti-spam and anti-virus filter settings to a brutal level to give the smack down to the spam and the virus-infected email. Some spam advertisements may get through, but those virus-infected email are zapped dead on my systems where all I see are reports of dead virus-infected email messages. But these processes for protecting my email do cost money and email should not cost money. And your own ISP or email service is also affected by these viruses that are spread via SPAM email. That impacts how much you pay your ISP due to having to deal with the sheer bulk of email that is received by your ISP everyday for everyone who subscribes to your ISP. Imagine if there was no spam and no virus-infected email, your ISP costs may be a few bucks cheaper because there is less email for your ISP's servers to handle! SPAM and viruses are getting bad everyday. As well as not sending spam, you can also help by making sure your PC systems are clean and do not have viruses.

Please Scan Your PC
With An Anti-Virus Program

If you have a PC, go to an anti-virus website such as at Trend Micro Anti-Virus which is located at http://housecall.antivirus.com and which has a free trustworthy online anti-virus scanner that you can use right away to scan your PC. If you don't have any basic anti-virus protections on your PC, please scan your PC if you haven't scanned your PC for viruses lately. You can usually scan and continue to surf the internet at the same time using the Trend Micro Anti-Virus.

If you already have an anti-virus program, please be sure you have installed the latest update for your anti-virus program. And please scan your PC to zap any viruses.

I can prevent damage and infection on my system, but I need your help in stopping those pesky virus-infected emails. I ask that if you don't have any anti-virus procedures in place for your system (whether for your personal computer or for your company's computers), please get a good anti-virus program. As for suggested anti-virus software, you can get McAfee's VirusScan, Norton Antivirus, or Trend Mirco's PC-Cillin antivirus programs which are all very good. I've used each of those programs and would recommend any of them. You can click here for free downloading of many different anti-virus programs for your PC. I ask that you regularly scan your PC system with an anti-virus scanner program if you don't use an always-on anti-virus program.

Please Keep Reading
and Please Read This Part:
Virus-Infected Email Can Send
Confidential Information From Your PC

Note that some of the more notorious viruses today are the MyDoom, MSBlast, SoBig, Klez, and Sircam viruses. A lot of virus-infected spam email are unfortunately sent to me everyday. Before I really turned up the anti-spam and anti-virus filters at the network level, I was deleting the virus-infected spam like someone who was swatting at mosquitos or trying to kill ants and not knowing where they are all coming from. You can click here and here and here and here and here and here and here for several news items about these gawdawful spam-spreading viruses. Those gawdawful viruses send files from a person's infected PC -- and those files could be your confidential files. Many viruses can infect randomly selected confidential files on the PC and then attach those files as attachments to the email messages that are sent out at random on an automatic basis using the virus's rogue email sender program that could be hidden somewhere on your PC by the virus. So as multiple infected email messages are sent out turning your PC into an automated virus-spam-sending robot, there could possibly be many infected megabytes of your PC system's confidential files being sent out to total strangers out on the internet. And some news reports say that if you have a really good expensive corporate industry-grade anti-virus system that could disinfect those infected confidential files, then you can read those resumes, school assignments, financial documents, accounting database files, spreadsheets, business plans, and other confidential files that are being sent out as virus-infected files in the virus-infected email messages. If you're wondering, before I turned on the network-level filters to zap spam and virus-infected email so I don't even have to see them, I've received virus-infected business plan documents and spreadsheets but now my anti-virus and anti-spam system zaps the virus-infected email dead without me having to see them.

Speaking of confidential documents that are snared by the viruses to be sent out with virus-infected email, I would NOT be surprised if there are big international corporations who have employees assigned to disinfect and sort through virus-infected email for any confidential corporate documents from competitors that were inadvertantly sent in via virus-infected email. I would NOT be surprised if there was a big-brother corporate or governmental email spam catcher for gathering people's confidential documents that are caught via virus-infected email. So, if your PC is infected, you could be unwittingly and rapidly filling up many strangers' email inboxes with virus-infected email messages containing copies of your confidential files.

PLEASE SCAN YOUR PC FOR VIRUSES:
Warning: Virus-Infected Email Can Forge
Your Email Address, My Email Address,
Or Anyone's Email Address In The
"From:" Address Header On Email

Many unsuspecting PC owners who have not disinfected their PCs are now reported to have been infected with trojan virus programs that are hijacking their PCs to send out porn spam email without those PC owners knowing that they have been hijacked -- click here and here and here and here and here and here to read about that terrible news.

Those pesky viruses have become very clever and can forge anyone's email address in the "From" address including putting your email address, my email address, or anyone's email address in the "From" address on the infected email message. So, it is very difficult to track who the virus-infected email is coming from even if you look at the hidden headers on the email message. If you receive an email with some sort of unknown attachment, do NOT open that attachment. Delete the infected email message (and if you use an email program like Outlook Express, then delete everything in your "Deleted Items" folder in Outlook Express). And please scan your PC with an anti-virus program to prevent your PC from being turned into a virus-infected robot that sends out virus-infected email containing copies of your PC's confidential files.

Please don't think that this cannot happen to you and that all you have to do is read the "Subject" line or the "From" line of your email to make a simple eyeball-determination as to whether the email is okay or not. You need an anti-virus program. And you might as well also get a good firewall software program such as ZoneAlarm which can help you to prevent those pesky viruses from talking to the internet if your PC somehow gets infected. Based on the incoming virus-infected emails that are bouncing off my anti-virus shields and being zapped by my anti-virus system, this virus problem appears to be affecting more and more people with PCs everyday.

Thank you for visiting Ruel.Net. And I hope your PC and your email are not infected.

Cheers,
Ruel

Public Service Link:
Click Here to Visit Trend Micro Anti-Virus
for Free Online Anti-Virus Scanner

Public Service Link:
Click Here for a variety of different Anti-Virus
programs you can download to your PC

Public Service Link:
Click Here and update windows with
the latest critical updates for your PC

Public Service Link:
Click Here if you don't have a firewall and
get the free ZoneAlarm firewall software
(If you have WinXP, then you already
have a firewall built into WinXP that you
should turn on to prevent the intrusion of
viruses and worms coming through any
unprotected ports on your PC.)

YOU CAN CLICK HERE
FOR RUEL'S OTHER
ANTI-SPAM INFO PAGE