Netscape 7.1 Weird E-mail, loses mail in inbox

I've had a weird e-mail that I receive perodically, maybe about
every three weeks. I first check my e-mail on my Earthlink Web
mail before I pull it into my netscape mail to ensure no junk or
viruses sneak in although I also have the new Norton. Well,
no matter what, this little e-mail sneaks in and I have no idea of
how. It has no subject, no sender but only a date which yesterday was
12/31/1969. I tried to view the headers or source and it's totally blank.
When it shows up, any e-mail I had in my "inbox" (not filed in folders)
they will all lose their content and be totally blank. And of course with
the date so old it's always at the top of my e-mail and it deletes anything
new than it which is everything. Usually I can delete it and empty my
trash and it's fine. But today I'd delete it (there were two today) and
empty my trasha and boom there they were again. Everything I tried
made no difference. I scanned my system twice, even used a scan
on Norton's site and nothing funny showed up. Finally I just sat and
thought about it and finally I wondered if "being on line" while I was
deleting them could make a difference. So I logged off, again deleted
them, emptied my trash and then compacted by folders, they were gone.
I closed Netscape, rebooted and they are still gone but I know from
experience it will reappear in the next 2-3 weeks. Have anyone ever heard
of anything like this? It sounds like a virus, worm, trojan or something
like that. I've been getting it for at least three months so it's not real
new that someone wouldn't have heard of it, especially Norton you would
think. Any ideas to prevent it from happening again?

 

This has happened to me, and I doubt that there is anything malicious. Most likely some spam.
You can either set up a Filter, Tools|Filter, select Date from the drop down, and whatever is applicable. You can enter any date you want. I have been getting such e-mail dated a month ago, so the flexibility is good. And, then to be sent to Trash.
I am having, very often "e-mails" with no date, sender nor message. Although there is something there. Those are a beast to handle.

 

Welcome to the Forum, jeriw!

Hi jeri,

Deleting the messages online or offline makes no difference. The recommended way to rid yourself of these messages is to first, delete all MSF files in your Mail Account folder, and if that doesn't work, then empty trash and compact your folders, which you did. Compacting your folders on a frequent basis is a good preventive measure. These messages aren't trojans, worms, virus, etc. Take a look at these suggestions for Preventive Browser Maintenance.

Ramona

 

Hi, thanks for the filter info, I've already set one up for the date of
the weird e-mail I keep getting. I told it to just "delete" it if it shows
up, hopefully that'll keep it from wiping out my inbox again. It never
seems to fail it always shows up when I haven't gotten around to
filing my important notes into the appropriate files. I'd be curious if
you manage to find a way to set up a filter for the e-mail you get
that hasn't nothing to work with. Maybe if you just leave the date
"blank" in the filter, it would just stop e-mails with no date OR of
course it might just remove all notes that come in. Again, thanks.

Jeriw

 

Ramona,

Thanks for the info, I'm printing it off now from the url
you gave me and I'll see if it helps the problem. I can
never figure when I'm going to get this weird e-mail so
I'll just have to wait till it happens again. I don't know
why it never even dawned on me to do a backup of
my e-mail on a regular basis, I know better than that I just
didn't think about it.

Jeriw

 

MSF files

Ramona,

I went and found my inbox (not an easy thing to do on Windows XP-at least not for me). I see an MSF file for every note that is in my mail box. Can you explain to me what a MSF is? Should I only delete msf files that are in my mail folder or should I search my complete system for .msf file extentions?

Jeri

 

Hi Jeri,

Delete only the MSF files in your Mail Account Folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\*.slt\Mail\pop.isp.net

The MSF files are the Mail Summary Files, and contain your Header, or index information. These files do become corrupt, and letting Netscape/Mozilla rebuild the files can be a cure for Mail problems.

Ramona

 

Jeri,

Also read the last two posts in this thread:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=31773

Set up this Mail Filter and you will not see those pesky messages again. You can set your filter to file the messages in the Trash folder.

Ramona

 

Ramona,

Thanks for all the good information and for sending me to the other two posts. I've set up the filter. One thing I have noticed a few times is that even Ebay once in awhile will send me an e-mail that is more than 1-2 days old like maybe the compose the note but don't send them out for a couple days. Doesn't happen often but it is a possiblity. If I set the filter for "less than 5" does that mean it would delete anything that was older than 5 days? All the suspicious notes have been dated 1969 so I know my filter should catch them. Now I'm going to go delete those pesky msf files

Jeri.

 

Jeri,

Leave the filter at 0 for now, and give it a chance to work. You can play around with it later.

Ramona

 

Ramona,

OK, I'll leave it alone (gg). I did delete all my .msf files and all
seems well. I made a backup of the file prior to deleting them though,
just in case. Thanks again for all the help, my computer and I sometimes
have a love/hate relationship!!

Jeri