An online dating service managed to send a mass e-mail to OU students and faculty Tuesday disguised as a letter from a single Russian woman named “Svetlana.”

The e-mail, which appears to be in the form of a letter from a 27-year-old woman describing a life of hardship who is desperately seeking true love, came into OU Exchange accounts Tuesday morning.

Some students said the two attachments bundled with the e-mail have made their computers run slower. One attachment is a picture of the purported love-sick author, and another is a description of the woman which describes her as a dental assistant who is artistic, athletic and a graduate of medical school.

“We get over 3 million known spam or malicious e-mails a day, and 90 percent of them are usually blocked by our spam filter and never make it to anyone’s account,” OU IT spokesman Nick Key said. “The junk e-mail filter did a good job with [this mass e-mail] and most people left it alone because it went right to their junk e-mail box.”

Key said the reason why some students might experience a slow down in the speed of their computers is because they may be a victim of something that they did not actually see as a part of the e-mail.

“You should never click on a suspicious e-mail, and if you have opened it, then you should never open an attachment to a suspicious e-mail,” Key said. “Your computer could become a hub for spam e-mail, viruses could run undetected in the background in your computer and you could also be the victim of phishing.”

OU IT will be upgrading to a new e-mail system, Exchange 2010, in July. The new program will “enhance spam identification and better manage spam e-mails,” Key explained.

He also said there are limits to sending mass e-mail through OU Exchange.

“OU has a strict mass e-mail policy,” Key said. “Attachments are not allowed along with other restrictions. Because of the nature of the e-mail, we can see that it did not come from OU. IT is looking into the origin of the e-mail, and we are trying to attempt to stop future transmissions from the sender.”