Why do people insist on sending warning e-mails to the supposed sender of virus-laden spam? After all, doesn't it merely add to the amount of unwanted e-mail we all receive? It's something I've often wondered about, as did a reader recently.
"This is a gripe about both manufacturers and users of e-mail anti-virus software," the reader wrote. "I run the IS department for a civil engineering firm with about 100 employees. Every day I get from 5 to 50 automated e-mails from notifying me that userX@ourfirm has sent infected email to someone at their site. Often this is an account that doesn't even exist."
"Invariably this is based on the 'From:' field of the infected e-mail!" the reader continued. "How many viruses do you know of that use the real sender's e-mail address? It's even more annoying, when the headers they send back with the message show the e-mail did not originate at our IP address! Why can't the makers of the software put the default to not send these useless responses out or the folks configuring these systems turn it off? I get enough junk mail each day without having to deal with this as well."
Would we be better off, as the reader suggests, if anti-virus software wasn't set to send out these alerts? Let us know what you think by posting your comments on my website or writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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