Thursday, January 27, 2005
7:55 PM — Fwd: Fw: virus alert
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 15:36:00 -0800 (PST)
From: K** <***@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: Fw: virus alert
To: sender's whole address book
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
--0-1437247994-1106868960=:51886
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
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Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:35:34 -0500
From: zandperl <***@gmail.com>
To: person who emailed me
Subject: Re: Fw: virus alert
Cc: all the people in her addressbook
Almost as horrible as a virus, is a Hoax Virus Alert. Fake virus alerts can come to you from anyone you know, and are most common from trusted friends and family members. While they do no direct damge to you or your computer, they slow down internet traffic, take up space in your inbox, and require precious seconds for you to click the "delete" button.
If you receive an email that you suspect is a hoax virus alert, you should independently verify whether the email is a hoax or a real virus warning before taking the drastic steps of deleting it or telling others that it is a hoax. Go to Google or your preferred search engine and type in some of the key words in the email. For example, using Google and the search terms " 'a card for you' virus alert" returns some 1,000 pages. Within the list of webpages, look for the webpages of trusted virus scan companies (such as Sophos, MacAfee, Norton, and Symantec) or myth
busting sites (like Snopes).
A typical "hook" in virus alert hoaxes is the claim that a computer will automatically freeze or crash when you view the infected email--no matter what email program you use (Outlook, Netscape, web-based, text-only, etc.), no matter what type of computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix). At the current time, Microsoft Outlook is the only email program significantly vulunerable to that sort of attack--if you use any other program to view your email, you would usually have to
run a file or download something in order to allow a virus to actually attack your computer. Additionally, these viruses are typically written for Windows computers, as they make up some 90% of the market.
To prevent yourself from getting real viruses, don't open unexpected attachments, install a virus scan program, and try not to use MS Outlook or Outlook Express for your email. To prevent yourself from being taken in by virus hoaxes, always look up info about the virus before sending the "warning" email on to friends, or following any directions in the email (such as deleting important system files, or formatting your hard drive).
For more information on this particular virus hoax, please see the below webpages.
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/virtualcard.html
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/card.asp
Zandperl ¶ permalink | 0 musings
From: K** <***@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fwd: Fw: virus alert
To: sender's whole address book
---Original Message---
S*** <***@cox.net> wrote:
From: "S***"
To: sender's whole address book
Subject: Fw: virus alert
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:51:07 -0500
: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 2:23 PM
Subject: FW: virus alert
Please read the following e-mail, this is serious. Good Luck, T***
-----Original Message-----
WORST VIRUS EVER ---CNN ANNOUNCED
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST !!
A new virus has just been discovered that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by McAfee and no vaccine has yet been developed. This virus simply destroys Sector Zero from the! hard disk, where vital information for its functioning is stored.
This virus acts in the following manner:
It sends itself automatically to all contacts on your list with the title:
"A Card for You".
As soon as the supposed virtual card is opened the computer freezes so that the user has to reboot. When the ctrl+alt+del keys or the reset button are pressed, the virus destroys Sector Zero, thus permanently destroying the hard disk. Yesterday in just a few hours this virus caused panic in New York, according to news broadcast by CNN.
This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself.
So don't open any mails with subject: "A Virtual Card for You." As soon as you get the mail, delete it!!
Even if you know the sender !!!
Please pass this mail to all of your friends.
Forward this to everyone in your address book. I'm sure most people, like myself, would rather receive this notice 25 times than not at All
Thanks,
D**
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
--0-1437247994-1106868960=:51886
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
----
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:35:34 -0500
From: zandperl <***@gmail.com>
To: person who emailed me
Subject: Re: Fw: virus alert
Cc: all the people in her addressbook
Almost as horrible as a virus, is a Hoax Virus Alert. Fake virus alerts can come to you from anyone you know, and are most common from trusted friends and family members. While they do no direct damge to you or your computer, they slow down internet traffic, take up space in your inbox, and require precious seconds for you to click the "delete" button.
If you receive an email that you suspect is a hoax virus alert, you should independently verify whether the email is a hoax or a real virus warning before taking the drastic steps of deleting it or telling others that it is a hoax. Go to Google or your preferred search engine and type in some of the key words in the email. For example, using Google and the search terms " 'a card for you' virus alert" returns some 1,000 pages. Within the list of webpages, look for the webpages of trusted virus scan companies (such as Sophos, MacAfee, Norton, and Symantec) or myth
busting sites (like Snopes).
A typical "hook" in virus alert hoaxes is the claim that a computer will automatically freeze or crash when you view the infected email--no matter what email program you use (Outlook, Netscape, web-based, text-only, etc.), no matter what type of computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix). At the current time, Microsoft Outlook is the only email program significantly vulunerable to that sort of attack--if you use any other program to view your email, you would usually have to
run a file or download something in order to allow a virus to actually attack your computer. Additionally, these viruses are typically written for Windows computers, as they make up some 90% of the market.
To prevent yourself from getting real viruses, don't open unexpected attachments, install a virus scan program, and try not to use MS Outlook or Outlook Express for your email. To prevent yourself from being taken in by virus hoaxes, always look up info about the virus before sending the "warning" email on to friends, or following any directions in the email (such as deleting important system files, or formatting your hard drive).
For more information on this particular virus hoax, please see the below webpages.
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/virtualcard.html
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/card.asp
Zandperl ¶ permalink | 0 musings
