Four times in the past few days I have received the following message:
You are not authorized to send mail to the DIV28 list
from your mark_grabe@UND.NODAK.EDU account. You might be authorized to send to the list from another of your accounts, or perhaps when using another mail
program which generates slightly different addresses, but LISTSERV has no way to associate this other account or address with yours. If you need assistance or if
you have any question regarding the policy of the DIV28 list, please contact
the list owners: DIV28-request@LISTS.APA.ORG.
Following this automated message was an attached Cool_MP3.zip file.
I am a member of the American Psychological Association, but not DIV 28. This is the reason the message “from me” was rejected. I had to ask around to find out what DIV 28 was. It turns out it is the group of psychologists interested in psychopharmacology (I am not certain I know how to spell this).
This situation is a good example of what is now the most common e-mail virus technique – the virus operates from the computer of a third party, takes two names from that computer’s address book, and sends some message and a virus from one name from the list to the other. If one of he addresses is a listserv, it appears the virus may be sent to the listserv.
It is good listservs have protection against participation by nonmembers. I wonder how many nonmembers are attempting to crash the psychopharmacology listserv? I bet “spoofed email” is a more common problem.
Those who employ automated reply procedures should adjust these procedures to current circumstances. A smart modification would be to not forward any attachments. Division 28 of APA ends up sending me “back” a virus I did not send them in the first place.
One nice thing about a Mac – you see the file extension. Would you open a Music_MP3.zip file from the American Psychological Association?
