Re: [Fwd: Fwd: Virus's....]

[Michael and MJ Houghton <herveus@access.digex.net>]

Poster: Michael and MJ Houghton <herveus@access.digex.net>

Howdy!

There are now apparently three email viruses spreading. Their spoor is
listed below, along with commentary and treatment at the end. Please read
all the way through before you take any action.

A nasty email virus caused Brian M to write:
> Poster: Brian M <wilthain@bellatlantic.net>
> 
[snip]> 
> Virus Alert!!! Look out some nasty ones are out there looking for you. 
> Read below about these new virus's.... Take care.
> ********************************************** 
>  Here's some information that was passed on to me and I thought I would
> share it because you never know...
>  
>  WARNING! If you receive an e-mail titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO NOT open it!
>  It will erase EVERYTHING on your hard drive! Send this letter out to as
> many people you can...this is a new virus and not many people know about
> it!
> This information was received this morning from IBM, please share it with
> anyone that 
> might access the Internet.
> 
>  Also,If anyone receives mail entitled; PENPAL GREETINGS! Please delete
> it WITHOUT reading it!  This is a warning for all Internet users - there 
> is a dangerous virus propagating across the Internet through an e-mail
> message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!"
>  
>  DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL GREETINGS"!
> This message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you are
> interested in a PENPAL, but by the time you read this letter, it is too
> late. The Trojan horse" virus will have already infected the boot sector
> of your hard drive, destroying all of the data present.  It is a
> self-replicating virus, and once the message is read, it will
> AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone who's e-mail address is present in
> YOUR mailbox!
>  
> This virus will DESTROY your hard drive, and holds the potential to
> DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your in box, and
> who's mail is in their in box and so on.  If this virus keeps getting
> passed, it has the potential to do a great deal of DAMAGE to computer
> networks worldwide!
>  
> Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon as you
> see it!  And pass this message along to all of your friends, relatives
> and the other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are
> on so that they are not hurt by this dangerous virus!
> 
>  There is a new virus going around in the last couple of days!!! DO NOT
> open or even look at any mail that you get that says: "Returned or Unable
> to Deliver" This virus will attach itself to your computer components and
> render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items that says this.
> AOL has said this is a very dangerous virus, and there is NO remedy for
> it at this time, Please Be Careful, And forward to all your on-line
> friends A.S.A.P.
> 
This message contains not one but three email viruses. The virus is the 
message itself. It spreads by getting people to forward it to all their 
friends. It is very sneaky.

Please do NOT forward this message to anyone. Please do NOT forward messages
like this unless you have MUCH better attribution than "AOL has said" or
"someone at IBM said".

These are HOAXes. They are designed to prey on unsuspecting but well meaning
folk. The message IS the virus.

The cure is to NOT forward these messages to all your friends.

thank you for your time,
Michael Houghton ('cause Herveus don't know squat about viruses)

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