Why I drink:

OK - here's a tech nerd post. I have several business clients, some large, some small. Some of what I do is difficult and advanced, and other times I feel like a glorified monkey.

So I have this one small client, and the business owner is a very nice woman. I would not however describe her as being computer savvy. I guess not many of my clients are. I mean Hell, that's why they're clients, right?

She is convinced that she is infected with a virus. Actually, she seems to be the only client I have who ISN'T. One of her complaints is that she receives viruses in her email, and they must be coming from her own computer, or something like that - I got confused. I looked at her email, and couldn't find anything terribly suspicious. So I performed some other fixes and repairs and gave it back to her. I also asked her to forward me any "viri" she received in her email, so that I could investigate.

This is what I received:
(I have done my best to protect the privacy of the uninformed)

Hi-
I am forwarding the ‘virus’ to you. Thanks!

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 9:54 AM
To: xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.org
Subject: WWW Form Submission

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by
() on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 09:54:05
------------------------------------------------------------------------
fName: xxxxxx
lName: xxxxxxxx
phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
userEmail: xxxxx@xxxx.com

userMessage: I've driven by your place hundreds of times over the years on my way to my farm in xxxxxx coming from xxxxxx. I am in the process of trying to start cultivating our land more and I'm looking for local sources of manure, and it occurred to me that maybe you were in need of a way to get rid of it as it piles up. Is that something you might be interested in?

submit: Send
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This doesn't look like a "virus" to me, something is definitely "piling" up. So this was my reply:

This appears to be a valid email sent from your website. There must be a form on your website that people can fill out to contact you, and the website forwards you these messages. When people communicate with you in this way, their name will not appear in the from field of the message.

But then I received this:

Hi-
This is not a valid message. In fact, I don't have a site...
If it was valid, why does it say WWW form submission? And where does it come from?

Hmm... She doesn't have a website? Well that does sound fishy then. But first, I decided to check for myself. I looked at the email address the "suspicious" WWW form submission came from and put a www in front of the domain - www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.org.

Sure enough, a website pops up. Yes, it is the website for her business. And look, there's a link that says "Contact Us". I click it and -GASP- there is a WWW form to fill out.

So I sent along this:

Xxxxx,

This is your website:

http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.org/

When you click "Contact Us", this page comes up:

http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.org/Contact.htm

If someone fills out this form and clicks send, you get an email. It is called a WWW Form Submission, and your website hosting company forwards them to you. I will send one after sending this message.

..and then filled out the Contact form like this:
(well, I left out the "Piggy" bits - don't want to get sacked)

Thank You For Filling Out This Form
Below is what you submitted to xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.org on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 09:08:49

fName: -Piggy-
lName: -Oink-
phone: -squeal-
userEmail: poop@angrypiggy.farm

userMessage: This is xxxx at xxxxxxxxxxxx sending you a WWW Form submission from your website.

submit: Send
FormMail V1.92 © 1995 - 2002

I am still waiting, with trepidation, for a response.