<img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

OK - so now I'm sending blank questions??

What I tried to say above was:

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that she had been getting mail returned to her that she had never sent and she didn't even know the address that had rejected them. There were attachments. Since I've got good virus protection, I told her to send one to me so I could look at the headers - just in case I could figure out the problem.

She sent one to me & as expected the attachment had a virus, so it was promptly deleted and I did a virus scan. Everything came up fine according to McAfee online.

A couple of days ago, I received something from "Mail Delivery System" saying that something I had sent could not be delivered due to the attachment. Same thing - I hadn't sent it & I don't know the address. This time there was no attachment because it had been translated into a bunch of gooblygook. I deleted it & did a virus scan - everything was ok. Today I just got another one. I'm in the midst of another virus scan right now.

What else can or should I do?

You are doing all the right things ... the problem with Klez (and it sounds like what you are experiencing) is that when someone has the virus, like other viruses it sends out a message to everyone in their address book ... the difference is it doesn't send it out under the name of the person who has the virus but rather from a random address from that person's address book. It makes it almost impossible to track down because it could be from anyone who has your email address in their address book ... it sounds like the messages are going out to some stale addresses in that person's address book and being returned to you because it sent them out under your email address. Does this make sense? If your virus scan is telling you that you are clean don't worry about it ... I know it's a pain to have to keep scanning each time a bad message comes in but it's your only protection. Good Luck.

Thanks Chris - I feel so much better now.
I kept thinking that it must be coming to me from somewhere else.

Another question. The virus scan I did last night said that 2 files could not be opened, so it didn't check them. one is "WIN386.SWP" and the other one I can't remember exactly & but it was in the IE folder in the temporary file. I suspect I should be able to delete the temporary one (if I can find it) but what is the WIN386.SWP file? Is it something I need?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Mavis ...
You should be able to delete the temp file with no problem but I wouldn't touch the WIN386 file until I have a chance to do a little research for you to find out exactly what that file is and whether it is necessary ... give me a day or two to tackle it. I'm under a couple of deadlines this week.

Hi Mavis ...
<G> Two days later ...
The WIN386.swp file is the file windows uses to create virtual memory on the HD when the RAM memory is inadequate for the applications running. You do NOT want to remove this file. It may be marked as a Read-only which is why the virus program could not open it.

Chris, that's interesting about how Klez works. The same thing happened to me and I figured it was just a fluke. I deleted it as I do a lot of stuff I get and just kept on going.

Thanks for the information. Great post Mavis.

Thank you so much for checking that out for me Chris. I really appreciate it. If you ever need any expert advice on pet birds - come & see me anytime.

You are welcome Mavis ... and I sure will look you up IF I ever get a pet bird ... I did have a Mynah Bird years ago and he was such a trip. I gave him back because I spoiled him soooooo bad and he started to complain all the time if I wasn't paying attention to him. I was working lots of hours so I began to feel guilty about how alone he was all the time and thought it better to let him be in an environment with more company.

Feel free to post if you have any other questions. I may not have all the answers but I will certainly try to get them when I don't.

It is interesting Angie but scary too because viruses just keep getting more and more sophisticated ... I always wonder what motivates a person to write a virus ... what possible "joy" could they derive from such a malicious act. The best we all can do is to keep diligent watch on our own systems, stay informed about virus activity, and keep our virus protect and firewalls up to date and turned on. It's our only line of defense.

I was once zapped from a visit to a site that I thought would be interesting because the forum I visited was interesting. Once I arrived at the site, there was a cat giving me the finger and the balloon said I had just won a new hard drive. Dang! I had to have my hard drive reformatted.

Some virus writers are seeking the thrill of a successful program. I guess something like the thrill of riding on a roller coaster.