I had to laugh... My first experience with SoBig

[Devils Advocate NZ]

So here I am checking my e-mail. Hmm, seems to be much more mail than I usually get, I wonder what is going on? Wow! Nearly all of them are returned e-mails that for one reason or another are undeliverable.

So I take a closer look. Yep, it seems someone who has my e-mail address in their address book got infected with SoBig, which as we know uses addresses from the infected computer's address book to spoof the sender header of the e-mails it sends to spread itself.

Nice to know that at least someone out there has my address saved, even though just about no one ever e-mails me. Maybe some spammer caught it? That would be nice.

But what is this?

It seems that my address seems to be sitting in the same address book as another address, an address which kind of makes me wonder who this poor person is, and whether I am so sorry they got SoBig after all!

From the returned message:

Thank you for contacting Presidential Prayer Team. You have just
sent a request to our automated e-mail system that we were not
able to process. This usually happens after replying to one
of our opt-in e-mail newsletters.

If you are wanting to subscribe or unsubscribe from any of
these newsletters, please visit our e-mail subscriptions page at:


You will be asked to login using your ID Code and password.

If you have any comments, feel free to contact us at
[e-mail] or call us at .

Warmest Regards,

Presidential Prayer Team Staff

So I go and check out exactly what the Presidential Prayer Team is:

Many across America and Americans in other countries are heeding the call to pray for our President. In a short time since the September 11 terrorist attacks, well over a million people have registered their promise to pray daily for the President. That number is increasing by tens of thousands of new team members every day. News of The Presidential Prayer Team is spreading rapidly throughout America as people march to the tempo of an almost forgotten tune, "God Bless America."

The independent, nonprofit organization behind The Presidential Prayer Team, has a singular purpose: to encourage specific nationwide prayer for the President. The goal is to enlist at least 2.8 million participants, or 1% of the American population, to make this prayer commitment.

<SNIP>

Franklin Graham, Michael W. Smith, Senator Jon Kyl, Bill McCartney, Thomas Kinkade, Jack Hayford, Joni Eareckson Tada, Jerry Colangelo, John Maxwell, Henry Blackaby, David Jeremiah, Paul Cedar, Ron Blue, Ted Haggard and Larry Burkett are among those putting their names behind The Presidential Prayer Team and its goal to encourage millions to pray daily for the President, the Cabinet and the nation.

<SNIP>

Bill McCartney, president and founder of Promise Keepers, encourages others to pray and join this effort saying, "God's Word instructs us to honor and submit to our government's leadership. Prayer is the first and most powerful way to do this."
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/info.php

So, whoever you are out there who has my address and these idiots' address in the same address book, please take your SoBig infection as a sign from god, and remove my address from your PC - obviously you can't be trusted not to open unsolicited attachments, and thus you are endangering my PC as much as yours.

Thank you.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. I pray ever day for the president......

...to be removed from office.

[arwalden]

2. "Yes, Anelle... I PRAY!!"

Well, I do! There, I said it, I hope you're satisfied.

I suspected this all along!

Oh! Well don't you expect me to come to one of your churches or one of those tent-revivals with all those Bible-beaters doin' God-only-knows-what! They'd probably make me eat a live chicken!

Not on your first visit!

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Okay...that was just....

....um....surreal.

:)