On Monday 02 August 2004 21:38, Maura Edelweiss Monville wrote:
Is this safe with SuSE 8.2 ? Shsll I believe this message and download the offered purging code or do I risk a fatal virus ?
As others have already told you, you're more likely to pick up a virus or trojan by following the link(s) in the email, especially if you are using Window. (Yes, I know that the likelihood of picking up a nasty that will affect Linux is pretty low, but I get paid to be paranoid.)
In short, it's spam. Delete it or report it, as you see fit. If you decide to report it, http://www.spamcop.net is a good starting place.
This is good advice - but don't fall into the trap of thinking that viruses/trojans only affect Windows. Even if a program won't run on Linux, it can still be a nuisance. Once, for example, I clicked on an .exe file (I know, I know - stupid, must just have been bored or something) and since SuSE try to make everything easier for you, wine proceeded to try and run the program. The end result was that about 80 files were deposited in EACH of the subdirectories (including hidden) of my home folder. No real harm done, except disk space used up and a lot of time to delete them, but a real pain in the proverbial. I won't do that again! David