Anime Revolution's e-mail account receives quite a few messages a day. We have noticed, over the past few months, that more and more of the e-mails we are recieving contain unrequested or unexpected suspicious attachments, several of which are confirmed to contain harmful computer viruses. AR has been trying to take as many precautions as possible, but we're going to institute a change in policy, effective immediately. Please continue reading for the new rules regarding e-mails to AR, and for important additional information about e-mails people have received from Anime Revolution's account - even if you have never e-mailed us in the past and never received an e-mail from us, PLEASE READ ALL THE INFORMATION BELOW!

What is the new policy? What will be done if I break this policy?

No attachments of any kind are to be sent to our e-mail without prior permission. If we receive any attachments, even if we know and recognize your e-mail address, we will not open your e-mail. It will be deleted on sight. If you are requesting that we use a specific image for something, we would again like to remind you that you must upload it to a free server, or else e-mail us first to get permission to send us the attachment (meaning, don't ask us permission to send it and attach it to the same e-mail - if we see an attachment on any e-mail and we're not expecting one from you, it goes bye-bye without us reading the e-mail). If you are granted permission to send us the attachment, instructions on what to put in the subject line of the e-mail will be contained in our reply to you.

What do these virus e-mails look like? How can I tell if someone sent me one?

Most virus e-mails vary, but the "outbreak" we've been getting all have similarities. These viruses appear to mainly affect Hotmail users - the majority we have received have been from people who use Hotmail. The virus e-mails we are specifically talking about usually have one-line subjects like "Hi", "Hello", "Important", and "Information". They also all contain attachments (usually denoted by a little paper-clip icon, especially for Hotmail and Outlook users) that are usually between 30-35kb. If you see any suspicious e-mail from someone you don't know that sounds like this, do not open the e-mail or the attachment!!!!!!! We can't stress that enough! We believe that these e-mails are being forwarded from accounts of people who have opened/read the e-mails containing the attachments. (From what we've been able to gather, opening just the e-mail does not put a virus on your computer, but it does somehow add your e-mail address to a "distribution list" from which the virus is then further spread. Opening the attachments themselves can potentially infect your computer with a virus.)

I recieved an e-mail from you guys that fits that description. Why are you trying to send me a virus?

Anime Revolution's Hotmail account was added to this "virus distribution list" when we accidentally opened one of these e-mails - we deleted an item we were reading, and because of our Hotmail settings, it automatically opened the next e-mail in line. Now we recieve about 5 of these e-mails every day, and every single one gets deleted without us opening it. Today, we received a reply from someone (with the original virus e-mail copied at the bottom) who said that we sent them a spam message. These viruses are distributed in such a way that it looks like your account was used to send it. We will never send you an unsolicited e-mail or attachment. If you receive any e-mails from us, DO NOT OPEN THE E-MAIL OR ATTACHMENT. DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. We will always include more than one word in our e-mail subject, and it will always have something to do with Anime Revolution. These virus e-mails do not only affect Hotmail users, though they are the majority, so please, if you're not expecting e-mail from us, do not open anything you receive from our address. If you're worried you might have deleted something important from us, please just send us an e-mail back and ask us if we sent you anything in the first place - if we did, we'll resend it, and you'll be expecting it. We'd rather you be safe than sorry!

Please - always use your best judgement when opening e-mails from people you don't know. If you use a "spam filter", do not solely rely on it - look carefully at everything you receive in your Inbox BEFORE you open it. If you receive any suspicious e-mails from people you don't recognize, it's always safest to just delete it - NEVER respond to the e-mail. If you receive unexpected attachments from someone you DO know, please do not open the e-mail until you ask them if they really sent you something. Many times these viruses are distributed without the knowledge of the person in the "From:" field!!! Remember, do not send any attachments to AR's e-mail accounts (anime_revolution@hotmail.com or ARStaff@anime-revolution.net) without getting permission first, or your entire e-mail will be deleted.

Thank you all for reading this, and please, keep yourself safe on the Internet!

~The AR Staff

 

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