My apologies for this totally OT post, but i would lioke to hear if
any urgler has any advive to offer me. I received an email from what
appears to be my ISP, namely BT/Yahoo, from which the following is an
extract:

As part of a worldwide initiative aimed at reducing junk email (spam)
and email viruses, all email providers are switching to what is known
as 'authenticated SMTP'. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol, which enables the sending of email. Authentication is a
method of identifying the origin of emails that stops emails being
sent anonymously.

I trust essentially no organisation which sends me unsolicited emails,
and would appreciate it if any urgler would reassure me that this is a
genuine letter, and that I should carry out the requested action which
appears later in the letter, and which I have not bothered to copy
here.

Once again, apologies, and thanks in advance for any help.

Franz