Living Without HepC

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog I have been asked to do another ‘Live Chat’ at the Hepatitis C Trust. Will post up more information on that when I have discussed dates and arrrangements with the staff there.

In the meantime, there are two other ‘Live Chats’ which have been organised by the Trust on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Benefits Advice. The Trust website also has transcripts of previous ‘live chats’ with Consultant Hepatologist Professor Graham Foster, HepC Specialist Nurse Yvonne Dawes and John Tindall.

Details of the two ‘Live Chats’ coming up soon:

John Tindall - Sunday 17th July from 6pm till 8pm on Traditional Chinese Medicine
Elaine - Friday 22nd July from 10am till 12pm on Benefits Advice

For information on ‘Live Chat’s and how to ask a question click here
If you have registered and would like to post a question before Sunday click here

The Hepatitis C Trust website also contains a wealth of information about different aspects of living with Hepatitis C. So it’s useful source of information generally - and their Helpline can give you advice and information specifically about your own situation. I recommend it as a site to visit.

Amidst everything else this week, I realise I haven’t posted up information about the next exhitibition for the NHS Hepatitis C Awareness Campaign.

The photo exhibition launched in Leicester Square in March travels to Nottingham this week - in fact it’s in Market Square on Thursday and Friday this week.

Nick Green, Liana* and Michele Martinoli will be there to meet the Press and visitors to the exhibition. There has been some coverage on BBC already and the Sun are apparently running a feature story tomorrow.

Nick has written up his experience with the BBC on his blog

We look forward to seeing the press coverage!

With the amount of spam, mass hits on my site and the current viruses going round I guess I have become a bit suspicious about emails.

Last week I received 2 emails asking me infomation about explicit sexual practices and the risks from them - and I didn’t answer them as I questioned their veracity.

Thinking it over, however, they might have been people genuinely worried about this area. I also did not know the answers to the questions I was asked.

So if you are one of those people - still left wondering, I can only suggest you address your questions to The Hepatitis C Trust by email or use the telephone helpline.

Or, if you are worried you might be at risk, contact your GP or GUM clinic for a blood test. See information at the NHS HepC Awareness site

I mentioned on the weekend that I have been getting a lot of spam containing viruses recently - purportedly coming from ronmetcalfe.com - yah, like I’m sending myself emails …

I have just been deleting them - and of course not opening the attachments - which contain the virus.

This week I have had emails ‘returned’ to me that were sent to New School University in Greenwich Village New York - marked as contaminated and not accepted by that institution’s anti-virus software. I had never heard of this university and have not ever emailed them.

So, these spammers are not only sending emails from me to me but also to other places too.

Today it occurs to me I should be warning those that read this blog about this - as these spam virus-laden emails could be going anywhere - including your computer.

These are a few samples of the type of wording they are using.

From: webmaster @ronmetcalfe.com [mailto:webmaster @ronmetcalfe.com]
Sent: 14 June 2005 11:27
To: tom @ronmetcalfe.com
Subject: Your password has been successfully updated
Dear user tom,
You have successfully updated the password of your Ronmetcalfe account.
If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact Ronmetcalfe customer service at: webmaster @ronmetcalfe.com
Thank you for using Ronmetcalfe!
The Ronmetcalfe Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ Ronmetcalfe Antivirus - www .ronmetcalfe.com

From: register @ronmetcalfe.com [mailto:register @ronmetcalfe.com]
Sent: 14 June 2005 10:46
To: jose @ronmetcalfe.com
Subject: Members Support
Dear Ronmetcalfe Member,
Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online service.
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership.
Virtually yours,
The Ronmetcalfe Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus found
+++ Ronmetcalfe Antivirus - www. ronmetcalfe.com

From: info @ronmetcalfe.com [mailto:info @ronmetcalfe.com]
Sent: 14 June 2005 10:46
To: james @ronmetcalfe.com
Subject: Members Support
Dear user james,
It has come to our attention that your Ronmetcalfe User Profile ( x ) records are out of date. For further details see the attached document.
Thank you for using Ronmetcalfe!
The Ronmetcalfe Support Team
+++ Attachment: No Virus (Clean)
+++ Ronmetcalfe Antivirus - www. ronmetcalfe.com

You can see they are slightly ‘off’ - ‘The Ronmetcalfe Support Team’ or ‘Thank you for using Ronmetcalfe’. So this should make you suspicious! Of course if you reply to that address I suspect that automatically confirms your address as a ‘live account’ - and fair game to go on a spammers address list (and no doubt sold on as well to other spammers).

Please be aware I will not send anyone an email with an attachment. In the rare instance where I do - we will have discussed it first so you will know to expect it.

I will also only send out emails which are address to you personally with your name, or nickname, on them.

I would not ask anyone to fill out documents about your Forum membership, etc - without posting such information on the Forum first - again you would know to expect it.Nor would I threaten I have “no choice” but to close your account.

(As I write this four more such emails have come into my Inbox)

Ben and I are talking about ways to diminish these spam emails - and will be making some changes to alleviate my problem soon - but I think it fair to point out this nasty trend in case something finds it’s way to your computer - looking like it has come from my domain.

Thanks to Carol and Martin for sending me information about new blogs - spotted as Links on some of the blogs already.

Elizabeth Anne is in British Columbia in Canada and Viralloader in Darwin Australia. Debbiejo is in Arizona USA. Links on all 3 now can be seen in the sidebar to the right of this column. I will point out that Debbiejo’s site brings pop-ups - perhaps I am just a bit weary of spams, mass hits from advertising and porno sites but I’m not too keen on coping with pop-up advertising too.

Good to see more people sharing their experience of Hepatitis C - each of us has a unique story and history of living with this virus that can be useful for others to read about, as well as beneficial for us to write about.

PS - after emailing Viralloader to confirm he is not yet quite ready to launch, I am following his request and removing the Link to his blog - only for the moment, I hope