Humorous experiance
May 1, 2002 6:15 AM Subscribe
This happened to me last week - I got bounce-backs of an email with the W32.Elkern virus attached. Several admins of lists I belong to sent out notices this week that their email addresses had been hijacked as well.
Just a coincidence in my life, or has virus activity picked up recently?
posted by junkbox at 7:49 AM on May 1, 2002
Just a coincidence in my life, or has virus activity picked up recently?
posted by junkbox at 7:49 AM on May 1, 2002
Klez and Nimda have been bouncing around a lot lately anyway.
posted by Foosnark at 7:53 AM on May 1, 2002
posted by Foosnark at 7:53 AM on May 1, 2002
Even speaking as someone who hastn't spent a career in tech support, I gotta agree with dhartung. Would you like me to wash your car for you too?
posted by jpoulos at 8:33 AM on May 1, 2002
posted by jpoulos at 8:33 AM on May 1, 2002
I bought memory for my iBook, memory which didn't fit and had to be returned. After 3 weeks I still hadn't received credit for it and emailed my contact at the company. No response.
A few days later, I started receiving no body, weird subject messages with forged from: headers. Since the domain sending them had a different domain than the above memory company, I simply sent an email to the webmaster/postmaster/abuse person to tell dl@***.com to knock this crap off. Later that morning, I noticed that my contact at the memory company and the person sending me these emails were the same Diane. Sent her an email, asking for a refund and a suggestion to run a virus scanner as well, referring to her constant nonsensical emails. Two minutes later, she apparently sent a "don't open any email from me for an hour!!!1" message to everyone in her address book and a personal apology to me for the delay in refunding my filthy lucre.
The credit for my memory went through later that day. Sweet karma.
(And I didn't get the virus since I use webmail for everything. That's gonna bite me in the butt one day, I just know it.)
posted by Tacodog at 8:35 AM on May 1, 2002
A few days later, I started receiving no body, weird subject messages with forged from: headers. Since the domain sending them had a different domain than the above memory company, I simply sent an email to the webmaster/postmaster/abuse person to tell dl@***.com to knock this crap off. Later that morning, I noticed that my contact at the memory company and the person sending me these emails were the same Diane. Sent her an email, asking for a refund and a suggestion to run a virus scanner as well, referring to her constant nonsensical emails. Two minutes later, she apparently sent a "don't open any email from me for an hour!!!1" message to everyone in her address book and a personal apology to me for the delay in refunding my filthy lucre.
The credit for my memory went through later that day. Sweet karma.
(And I didn't get the virus since I use webmail for everything. That's gonna bite me in the butt one day, I just know it.)
posted by Tacodog at 8:35 AM on May 1, 2002
I'm still looking for the humor in this one.
As said above this isn't a MS problem. But the rep gave her good advice to boot obviously someone she knew had a virus and would her box would probably be next in line to be attacked. She should have updated her virus defs and service packs to protect herself.
I guess the humor here is more in the ignorance of the poster not the MS rep.
posted by bitdamaged at 9:02 AM on May 1, 2002
As said above this isn't a MS problem. But the rep gave her good advice to boot obviously someone she knew had a virus and would her box would probably be next in line to be attacked. She should have updated her virus defs and service packs to protect herself.
I guess the humor here is more in the ignorance of the poster not the MS rep.
posted by bitdamaged at 9:02 AM on May 1, 2002
why then, dhartung and jpoulos, would you choose to give foolish advice and advice that implies that it is Microsoft's problem, instead of saying "it's not our problem"?
posted by badstone at 10:37 AM on May 1, 2002
posted by badstone at 10:37 AM on May 1, 2002
badstone - What about that was foolish? The CS rep's advice was to 1) keep it off your computer (update antivirus files) and if it gets through, 2) keep it from doing damage (apply security patch). It was Microsoft's problem, their responsibility was to acknowledge it and fix it, which they did (according to dhartung - can't check myself because MS appears to be hammered).
The user's defenses had already failed, so the rep knew she didn't have up to date virus protection. The user needed to get rid of it and keep it from spreading.
posted by swell at 1:22 PM on May 1, 2002
The user's defenses had already failed, so the rep knew she didn't have up to date virus protection. The user needed to get rid of it and keep it from spreading.
posted by swell at 1:22 PM on May 1, 2002
« Older This new trading card game | Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
This is not Microsoft's problem. Nothing on the customer's machine is malfunctioning. Microsoft's support people are not charged with -- nor particularly trained in -- tracking down a computer owned by someone else that is infected and pretending to be you. It would be nice if they were, but I hope someone asking for that kind of support is willing to pay through the nose, because it's far above and beyond the vendor-customer relationship between you and M$. Microsoft can't even be blamed for the originating computer, because they've long since released a long since released a patch.
This has more to do with people's unreasonable expectations of hand-holding than anything else.
posted by dhartung at 7:35 AM on May 1, 2002