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!0000 Tip - Trick or Treat?

Q: Someone told me this nifty trick for stopping viruses, you just create an entry in your address book with !0000 for the name and since it's not valid, the virus won't be able to send itself out! Isn't that cool???

A: Well, not really. Sad to say, that's a hoax. I wish it was that simple to stop viruses but virtually all current viruses use their own little mail program to send themselves out, not your mail program. Yes, they do grab email addresses from your address book but they'll simple ignore the ones that don't have valid email addresses and go on to the next address. Here's an article from About.com about this trick that's not a treat:

!0000 Trick - Trick or Treat?