>Gee, who would have known they could read and write?<

As a proud desendant of a long line that my great grandfather gave my great grandmother, I take umbrage at the slur cast upon my ancestral homeland.

One day I will look it up and find out where it is.

Alas, moolyn, I may have misled you and possibly others, in which case I do apologize. I can't be certain, but Blustar's post about opening one of the 'garbled' emails and discovering nonsense sentences within was what tipped me off that we might be talking about a different type of email than I mentioned before. In short, I think your friend might have been targeted by a virus, not just a spammer.

Viruses can get activated when certain emails are opened - and if I've understood the mechanism correctly, it seems it's no longer just the attachments that are the problem but the email itself. Once opened, the virus seizes control of all the email addresses held on file by the accountholder who has just opened the email. If this is what has happened to your friend, it could well be because someone who has her email address on file with their account opened one of these virus-riddled emails. As a result, her and all the other addresses instantly became the targets for a wave of similar emails. Once you start getting virus-generated emails, the only way you can get rid of them, as far as I know, is by ditching the email account.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, if this is in fact the case.

Ira, you are correct as always!

Next time I write a trip report I'll ask people not to respond and it will be sure to stay at the top for months.

Sue, thanks for this new information! This may very well be what happened. My friend has already changed her email address so that should take care of the problem whether it's a an email virus or an unintended authorization to receive third party email.