I Googled for Plaxo and invitation. It doesn't look sinister. There is a LOT of discussion about it, beginning about 2004. Below are two snippets. Diane ======================================================== Here is an excerpt from Ben Golub, president and CEO of Plaxo, which provides an online service for managing contact information. Though there are certainly some people who are misusing these new tools to send "acquaintance spam" to everyone in their address book, this situation should correct itself over time. Every new technology has an etiquette learning curve. ......... and from someone else: There’s a labor-related incentive to joining these networks. If I join Plaxo, then I just have to maintain my contact information in one place and all the other Plaxo members can link to it. If I change my phone number, that information propagates to you automatically. On 17-Jan-09, at 9:10 PM, Laura & Dave wrote: > This blanket email demonstrates the "cunning" of the hacker. There > are > a couple of ways to do this, at least. One is to create a false > header > made to look like it came from Norm, and fooling the system into > thinking that was the true source. Another, more sinister way, is to > have Norm's computer actually generate the messages, which means that > his computer, and now some of ours probably, is infected with > malicious > programs of some form or another. I'd recommend everyone make sure > that > your virus software has the latest signature files loaded, then check > every thing (system files, memory, and everything on any drive). It > might take a while, but it's worth it. In addition to virus software > (we use F-Prot)) there is a good free program for clearing junk files > called Ad-Aware. By the way, I received this same e-mail from several > different sources. Lucky me!! Do hackers make good mulch? > > I'd rather be gardening > Dave Brastow > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >