"Quercus Robur" <quercus@example.invalid> writes:

> I received this Email from a friend, does it work?

It could for a _tiny_ subset of worms. And it certainly doesn't cost
anything to do, so no harm in putting such a thing in there. But I
wouldn't waste anyone else's time forwarding the tip on because it's
so unlikely to actually help.

The problem is that by no means do all worms use the suppositions
needed for this to work, which would be:

The worm actually looks for success of the sending of outbound
mail and looks for replies/confirmations to come back to
determine whether to go on. 4 out of 5 worms surveyed opt to
just trudge forward and try all combinations and ignore any
problems along the way.

The worm uses the address book for the specific email client
you use. If you use outlook express though, it's a good bet
worms will check for that one since it's rather popular.

The worm won't necessarily use your email address as the From:
address (as would be required if you are hoping to get a
bounce in return to alert you to the "problem"). Many take
all the addresses they find from so many different sources and
then forge from: and set to: addresses semi randomly

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/