"Ken Anderson" wrote in message
...
G'day All,

After a few 'laced' emails from this Forum, and a bit of research, it would
seem that a nasty virus (swen?) has been propogating via this Forum.

Hi Ken,
The Swen virus is not "from" this forum per-se, it's coming
from someones infected computer. The Swen virus searches out all email
addresses on an infected computer, which means it will pick up every address
for every post it can find in whatever newsreader the user has. So, it's
effectively pulling our names out of someones newsreader.

To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't propogated via/past my email client,

You would have to receive it and then open the attached executable. If you
had done that you'd be seeing system errors and popup registration forms all
the time.

as I'm sure I've trapped each occurence and killed it (with delight).
However, anything is possible with these resourceful and vandalistic
*******s .

This problem seems to currently be centred on Australia.

Actually it's worldwide you're probably seeing the result of some infected
friends or acquantainces which has your email address stored on your
computer.

Don't trust any email that appears to be from "Microsoft". Please refer to
http://www.trendmedia.com for a free up-to-date scan of your system. No,
this is not and ad - just good advice.

I don't know trend media but I'd put more faith in a name brand frequently
updated antivirus program, not to mention a good dose of suspicion and
common sense with regards strange emails.

It would be really good if everyone got up-to-date virus protection.

Agreed. There should be a law against people using the internet if they
don't have a firewall or anti-virus protection active. Good anti-spyware
apps are also a good thing.

Please take appropriate precautions It's worth spending a 'few quid'. I,
for one, don't appreciate receiving viruses.

Get used to it with this one, I've probably had several thousands of these
emails by now. It's regular practice for me to log onto my mail server via a
browser to kill off this stuff before downloading the real emails with my
mail app.

Dick Smith (Australia) has PC-cillan (or howver it's spelled) for a very
reasonable price at the moment. It's a good investment.

I'd recommend Sophos antivirus or any of the other name brand stuff BUT it's
only effective if you keep it up to date.


--
The Raven
http://www.80scartoons.co.uk/batfinkquote.mp3
** President of the ozemail.* and uunet.* NG's
** since August 15th 2000.