Today I read a post in the newsgroup microsoft.public.office.setup - a group whose subscribers discuss Microsoft Office installation problems and solutions - which provoked the above question. The subscriber who wrote this post (and probably needs anonymity) identifies himself as a Microsoft Outlook MVP. I don't know what the title means but I suspect it means he's a Microsoft Outlook expert.
His .sig has this:
--
(deleted to protect the afraid) [MVP - Outlook]
Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.
Now, please, don't go Googling for this signature to find out who he is. He does not solely deserve the embarrasment caused by hundreds of other MVPs who probably do the same thing.
However, this begs the obvious question: What is he afraid of?
Think about it:
- He's a (likely) paid support professional,
- He supports Microsoft Outlook,
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 Service Pack 1 and later automatically blocks executable e-mail attachments,1 and,
- He probably uses the latest version of Microsoft Outlook for his e-mail (which as of this writing is Outlook 2003).
For the record, I use Outlook 2000 Service Pack 3 for my regular e-mail, which is probably two generations older than what this fellow is using. Yet I don't contribute to e-mail virus problems. I can open Melissa and ILoveYou and Nimda e-mail messages with impunity, because Outlook catches these for me.
If I can do this, and I'm no MVP, what's the MVP afraid of?
- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;829982