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Rogue email

December 18th, 2009 at 08:43 am

Can't sleep. It's 3:30 am.

I got an email yesterday I used to work with. There was no message, just a link. Since I know the sender, I clicked on the link. It brought me to a website selling Viagra.

Apparently when you click on the link, the message automatically replicates and re-sends itself to ALL THE CONTACTS IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. Not cool. I have several hundred contacts in my address book due to my freelance work; many I'm not in regular touch with. It would be very embarrassing to have to contact them and warn them not to click on the link, if indeed it's not too late. I know that Yahoo email won't let you send a message out to more than about a hundred recipients; it looks like spam to them; i'm hoping this is what happened to the rogue email and the message went undelivered.

Just another example of the importance of treating every hyperlink with caution, even if it comes from someone you know.

I don't think this one does any lasting damage, but who knows.

I went to a workshop yesterday on interviewing skills at our local library. There was a good sized crowd, all, I noted, over the age of 50. I didn't really learn anything new, but a good refresher course never hurts. Of course it's all pie in the sky stuff becus it's been months since i had a job interview.

I met some people in my town who are making an educational film about water quality. They need a writer to do the narration. This could be a very exciting opportunity for me, a combo of pro bono and paid work. I have already volunteered to do some grant writing work for them. They are mostly volunteers themselves.

It's kind of funny that ever since i was laid off, i was casting about for some interesting volunteer work to do. I got as far as meeting with one volunteer group but after an orientation i backed out. The work just didn't seem that interesting and involve virtually no networking opportunities. I had also wanted to return to a food bank but they had all the volunteers they needed. Maybe this film will be my volunteer opportunity. There's not just the narration of the film, but also the grant writing for funds I mentioned as well as PR work following completion of the film.

I've now woken my cats up, who are prowling around and no doubt wondering why I'm up at this hour. Luther was being quite the bad boy yesterday. He seemed to enjoy popping the bubbles in some pieces of bubble wrap I'd saved and put by the attic door to take up with me next time i went up there.

2 Responses to “Rogue email”

  1. campfrugal Says:
    1261142270

    I got the same email and link. It was from a board member that I am on a non-profit board with. I emailed him back to let him know. He said it was sent from his phone. I did see on one of the news stations that one of the phones out there is infected with a virus. Anyway, he apologized, told me not to open anything from him right now and that he would delete me from his phone book until he could get it fixed. Crazy.

  2. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1261147659

    Yuck! Ewww! That's all....

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