# Strangers are e-mailing me embarrasing computer files! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangers-are-e-mailing-me-embarrasing-computer-files/73684 "2001-07-24T22:27:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangers-are-e-mailing-me-embarrasing-computer-files/73684/1 "2001-07-24T22:27:49Z")
When the Melissa and I Love You viruses hit, I felt pretty left out because no one sent me a copy of either one. But now that the Sircam worm is everywhere, I’m suddenly extremely popular! It turns out that Sircam scans people’s browser caches for web pages that contain e-mail addresses, then mails itself to those addresses, along with a random document from the host computer. Since I have a website that gets a whole lot of traffic, thousands of people have my address in their caches, and I’ve gotten at least 20 copies of the worm in the last couple of days, each of which had a random file attached to it. You can spot the Sircam worm easily because the body of the e-mail always contains the line “I send you this file in order to have your advice.” The file attached usually has a .bat or .pif extension, the latter of which Bill Gates has wisely decided to keep Windows from displaying in order to facilitate the spread of viruses. Here is one paragraph from one of the documents I got: > [@](#): > > Every time I look in your eyes > I can see to the skies > And it makes my heart float to heaven **Don’t try this at home!** If you get one of these messages, you should delete it immediately without trying to look at the attachment! I only do it because I know what I’m doing and I like living on the edge.