Here’s another one. First the notice they sent me:

Subject: VIRUS (Worm.SomeFool.P) IN MAIL FROM YOU

VIRUS ALERT

Our content checker found
    virus: Worm.SomeFool.P
in your email to the following recipient:
-> ADDRESS REMOVED

Please check your system for viruses,
or ask your system administrator to do so.

Delivery of the email was stopped!

And now my response:

Subject: BOGUS ALERT (sent to wrong address) IN MAIL FROM YOU

BOGUS WARNING ALERT

My BS checker found
    bogus warning: notice sent to known-forged sender
in your email to the following recipient:
-> MY ADDRESS

Please check your virus scanner for better notification options,
or ask your system administrator to do so.

All modern email-based viruses forge the sender address. Additionally, since your virus scanner was able to identify the specific virus, it can determine on its own that this virus always uses a forged address.

By notifying the supposed sender of a message when you know that sender is forged, you are knowingly sending virus warnings to people who are, in all likelihood, not using an infected computer. Messages like these are just noise, and the more of them that are sent, the less attention people will pay to *real* warnings. Additionally, it also runs the risk of causing unnecessary concern among the less tech-savvy (and extra calls to tech support about the nonexistant virus they fear they have).

(Feel free to re-use my response. I partially quoted myself anyway.)

I’m contemplating building a “hall of shame” and actually posting the sources of some of these. Any thoughts?