I have Outlook Express and have received e-mails in the past that contain
Incredimail's 'envelope' and the end of the page. I have done virus
scans and adware/spyware scans but have not come across anything. How would
I go about checking my computer for an 'embedded' folder or something
similar to it.
Linda Kuzyk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Penlington" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:46 AM
Subject: [PCSOFT] another incredimail query
Sheryl writes:
<<why would PCSOFT pass along your questions or mine?>>
My guess is that formatted text is converted by PCSoft to plain text before
it is transmitted to readers.
This is fortified by the fact that (at least on mine) these letters get
somewhat garbled by the conversion and can occasionally be quite difficult
to read (as you may see from the following extract).
Actually, I'm surprised that any formatted emails get through at all---most
forums will only accept plain text.
<<none of my friends or family,=0D
who do not have Incredimail, but do have Spyware to check for such proble=OD
ms,
have never had any problem. >>
Trojans can sometimes be extremely difficult to detect, and you are usually
unaware of their existence. After all, that is their sole purpose in most
cases---to transmit your browsing habits to their owners. So they are by
design completely unobtrusive and harmless.
There has never been any suggestion that Incredimail is destructive or
harmful in any way, and you will not observe any harmful effects. Except
perhaps a sudden large increase in spam. And you may not even see that if
your ISP has decent spam filters.
Some people just don't like their computers being compromised in this
way. The possibility is there for any sort of personal information to be
sent out of your computer. To many others, it's of no great consequence.
The situation may have changed recently, but for a long time, the owners of
Incredimail would never come clean about the exact purpose of this
information-gathering, simply asserting that it was benign. That may well
be the case, as it is with much spyware. But it does worry a lot of
people. The suspicion is always that it might be on-sold to spammers.
Fair enough, if they came clean and told you that was the price of the
program. The fact that is has always been so secretive cannot but make one
extremely suspicious.
To be fair to Incredimail, it is probably no worse than many other freeware
programs which contain spyware. I use some excellent ones myself,
preferring that option to paying for the stuff. But the major (there are
several) objection to Incredimail is the fact that it is not just your own
computer that is affected. That's the one factor that makes it different
from other potential spyware.
Look up Fred Langa's archives for more details on Incredimail---he did a
series of articles on it about a year or more ago. You'll also find details
on several web-security sites (which I don't have at my fingertips right
now---a Google search should reveal them).
Whenever anyone used to send me Incredimails, I frequently had to clear
Eudora's "Embedded" folder of a lot of junk. Not a problem, just a
nuisance. It doesn't happen any more, because my email filters are set to
reject all formatted mail.
I don't know how OE handles them. I suspect they just accumulate unless
users know how to clear them out, which many people don't.
Don Penlington
From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery, and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
The NOSPIN Group Promotions is now offering
Mandrake Linux or Red Hat Linux CD sets along
with the OpenOffice CD... at a great price!!!
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