Ack! I sent you a virus!

( December 2, 2002) Polite people cover their mouths when they cough, wash their hands when they sneeze, and generally avoid infecting others with viral diseases. So what should polite folks do if their computer develops a flu?

#1 Avoid contact with others.

As with chicken pox, isolating the patient is a good rule. That means no e-mail, and especially no attachments, until the infection is under control. Please don’t send messages such as the following:

Getting advice is a good idea, but until your machine is thoroughly disinfected, find help from a recognized authority via web site, over the telephone or through face-to-face communication .

#2 Is it the flu or a hoax?

There are oodles of actual viruses infecting the internet, but there may be even more fake flues. The fakes are harmless, except as annoying distractions that clog the waves with millions of e-mail messages as well-meaning folk forward notices to everyone in their address books and advise friends to do the same. Do you remember the bogus Valentine Virus?

Originating in 2000, this counterfeit continues to make the e-mail rounds as new generations of internet users innocently distribute its false message.

Please note, not all e-mail entitled "Be My Valentine" is harmless. There are versions circulating with nasty attachments that do actual damage. That's why experts advise that you never accept an e-mail with an attachment unless you are expecting to receive one.

#3 Ask an expert.

So, if you can't e-mail your internet guru, where can you go for advice? The World Wide Web abounds with genuine, reliable advice. A best bet is the Symantec web site: Hoax List. Symantec provides internet security software, including the best-selling Norton Anti-Virus packages. You'll find most virus hoaxes on their list.

Alternatively, copy a sentence from the suspect message and paste it into Google.com or another major search engine. In a few seconds, you'll find a long list of sites happy to inform you that you've encountered a scam. It helps if you use quotation marks. Here's what pops up if you paste "Warning on February 14, 2000" (complete with quotation marks) into the Google search window.

#4. Be very suspicious of any message advising you to delete files.

Many Larchmonters recently received a message suggesting we immediately delete one of our Microsoft Windows files: "The virus has a teddy bear icon with the name jdbgmgr.exe," read the e-mail, and sure enough our index showed that file. However, a quick web check revealed the message to be a hoax.

In this case, deleting the teddy bear file would have created inconvenience, not chaos. The jdbgmgr.exe file handles an obscure "Microsoft Debugger Registrar for Java" and can be replaced easily. Other deletions would be much more serious.

In the Larchmont case, numerous alert recipients of the message replied with better advice, including this missive from LMC-TV's Erik Lewis:

"This has all the earmarks of a fake virus alert telling us to delete one of those little known programs or commands that lay buried in our operating systems. I would call [or check the websites for] McAffee or Norton and ask them about this before deleting anything. I've seen too many of these phony alerts not to be wary. Happy computing."

The easiest approach is to use your computer to surf over to the Hoax List.

#5. Be very suspicious of any message advising you to e-mail everyone in your address book.

If you receive a message suggesting you forward it to everyone you know, it has a high probability of being a virus or a hoax. You certainly don't want to spread destruction among your friends and all of their friends. Nor do you want to waste people's time and mental energy in needless worry.

Before e-mailing anyone, much less your entire address book, follow steps #1-5. You'll save yourself and your friends from both embarrassment and distress.

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