# E-Mail Getting Deluged With a Virus. Advice?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 29, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449 "2003-09-29T10:46:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/1 "2003-09-29T10:46:05Z")
I give up. For over a week now, I’ve been receiving e-mails at the e-mail account I use on this board which purport to be from Microsoft which appear to contain or be affiliated with the Sven-A virus, I think (I may have the exact name of the virus wrong). Which means that at least once a day, my account fills up and blocks in-coming virus. Yahoo is good enough to route most of them to my Bulk Mail (spam) folder automatically, but that’s not what I want. I want the things deleted on receipt. Better yet, I’d like to quit receiving the things period. I’d also like unspeakable things to happen to the person responsible for this, but that’s beside the point, I suspect the line for that’s rather long.
What can I do? I’d rather not abandon the account. It’s my general-purpose public account, and I’ve got too many e-mails from friends which I’d like to keep. On the other hand, I’m tired of this nonsense.
Does anyone have any advice? I wouldn’t recommend e-mailing it to me directly; I may not get it. If you want me to e-mail you, let me know and I’ll use an alternate account.
CJ
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/2 "2003-09-29T11:29:21Z")
Is there no way of putting a block on the sender’s address, **Siege** , so the stuff gets bounced back?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/3 "2003-09-29T11:42:25Z")
I’m getting this all the time too, in my work account.
Do you pay for Yahoo’s pop service? ($19.99 p/a). If so, you can use a pop client and set a filtering rule based on the words used in the virus mail to route directly into your trash. Best not to use a Microsoft client, though.
Sadly I had to abandon my Yahoo mail because of the spamming. Took quite a while to get everyone I know to change over to the new address.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/4 "2003-09-29T11:42:45Z")
If you’re running XP, turn on your firewall
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/5 "2003-09-29T11:52:13Z")
CJ, are you using Outlook? Do the emails have the same subject heading (or similar)? Then you can filter them, instructing Outlook to delete them from the server, meaning they’d never be downloaded into your mailbox. IOW, it would stop them before they got to you.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/6 "2003-09-29T12:02:15Z")
**dantheman** , since it is Outlook and Outlook Express that have the autorun features that allow the virus to propagate, I don’t think it’s wise to advise **Siege** to use these clients. Non-MS would be much safer.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/7 "2003-09-29T15:41:57Z")
I’m asking if she’s using Outlook. If she is, then filtering the bad emails so that they’re never downloaded is prudent. I’m not sure what your reservations are about filters, **jjimm**. If the email is never downloaded, then the autorun won’t execute.
(Incidentally, you can eliminate the autorun by turning off the Preview Plane.)
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/8 "2003-09-29T16:21:41Z")
It depends on whether Outlook is hooking into an IMAP or a POP3 mailserver. If it’s a POP3 server, Outlook downloads mail+attachment to the local machine before filtering. In general, it’s just very unwise to have the virus on one’s hard drive, whether it’s auto-execing or not.
(I do concede that part of what I was saying was based on a personal prejudice - I always use the preview pane).
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### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/9 "2003-09-29T21:47:13Z")
I don’t use Outlook on my home computer, just Yahoo’s built in service and the one which came with my ISP. I haven’t found a way to block the addresses of the senders, although I will continue looking around. As for my OS, it’s Windows 98, but I’ve noticed the problem when I access Yahoo from other computers than my own. It’s funny, up until now, I’ve had very little trouble with spam.
Oh well, time to empty out my mailbox again. :rolleyes:
CJ
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/10 "2003-09-29T21:48:13Z")
I just have Agent skip any messages larger than 50k. They won’t download these things but eventually I have to. Also can delete based on word(s) in subject.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/11 "2003-09-29T22:02:27Z")
**jjimm** , are you sure about that? In Outlook (not relevant here, of course), I can choose in a filter not to download the email at all. That tells me that the filter prevents the email from being downloaded, period.
(Of course, now I use Eudora, so it’s moot for me.)
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Siege \*
> \*\*I don’t use Outlook on my home computer, just Yahoo’s built in service and the one which came with my ISP. I haven’t found a way to block the addresses of the senders, although I will continue looking around. As for my OS, it’s Windows 98, but I’ve noticed the problem when I access Yahoo from other computers than my own. It’s funny, up until now, I’ve had very little trouble with spam.
>
> Oh well, time to empty out my mailbox again. :rolleyes:
>
> CJ \*\*
If the email service that came with your ISP cannot easily block or filter emails, I’d quit using it altogether; there are better, more reliable, more secure, and free email programs out there. Like Eudora. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/12 "2003-09-30T00:26:44Z")
The mail being spoken about here comes from many different places with different titles.
I have the same problem as the OP. Main account being spammed to death.
To get around my instance of the problem, I’ve installed mailwasher so I can view the mail on the server and delete anything that looks like this set of emails.
It saves me downloading huge volumes of data just to be deleted.
I’ve also noticed that the volume is decreasing from around 1 per minute two weeks ago to around 1 every 30 minutes now, so hopefully it’s drying up.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/13 "2003-09-30T00:30:11Z")
Well, like handy said most email clients will let you block any emails over a certain size.
(I don’t get much of this type of spam anymore, either.)
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### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/14 "2003-09-30T00:32:49Z")
Yahoo’s built in service doesn’t look to be that sophisticated. There are disadvantages to a free service. I have put out an inquiry, so I’ll see what happens.
[hijack]So, **dantheman** , any chance of you turning up at **Jonathan Chance** ’s in a few weeks?
CJ
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/15 "2003-09-30T00:36:15Z")
Yahoo’s service isn’t terribly good, although I suspect if you pay the $10 for the full POP account, you could get filters.
With any of the free Web email services - and they’re ever-dwindling - they don’t seem to be as hell-bent against spam as the other ones are, such as Eudora or even Outlook. Trust me, CJ, you’ll be much better off downloading a program if you can (they don’t take up much room, afaik).
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/16 "2003-09-30T03:17:01Z")
Reverse the logic.
For example, if you have a free Yahoo account, filter all incoming email to trash, _except_ those emails coming from friends and other bonafide accounts you will accept.
You will only see the emails you want to see.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/17 "2003-09-30T07:57:01Z")
I used the Yahoo pop service for all of last year, and the filters don’t work when you pick the mail up from the popserver - even though at the webmail end it’s junked, when you do a POP call, it still delivers the stuff to your client.
**dantheman** , if Outlook has such a feature (filtering POP3 mail _before_ downloading the mail), please can you tell me how it works, 'coz I’m having a feckin nightmare here.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/18 "2003-09-30T09:47:17Z")
Click on Tools, then Message Rules, then Mail, then New to create a new filter. Then, if you notice under “2. Select Actions for your Rule,” at the very bottom there are two rules: “Do not download from server” and “Delete from server.” (These are in OE 6, btw; maybe we have different versions.)
The former rule means it stays ON the mail server, but you never see it; this would mean that it would take up space you might need at some point. The latter rule removes it from the server entirely, and again you don’t see it.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/19 "2003-09-30T10:18:44Z")
Now I understand the source of our confusion:
I was talking about Outlook.
You were talking about Outlook Express.
Outlook doesn’t have this option.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2003, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-mail-getting-deluged-with-a-virus-advice/204449/20 "2003-09-30T10:24:28Z")
Well… Outlook sucks.
😃
I just checked a copy of Outlook 2000 on my computer, and it doesn’t have the option, either. Wonder why OE does.
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