I thought you all might get a kick out of this, the following is a e-mail reply I sent out to the addresses on a e-mail that had been forwarded around amongs some friends and coworkers and I had recieved several times and got fed up with. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.... The text of the e-mail that was getting passed around is at the bottom of this message.
-spy
*****************************************************************************************************
All-
I have addressed this e-mail to you because your e-mail address appears along the line of the threads of this e-mail. YOU HAVE ALL BEEN TRICKED, this virus is nothing more than a year and a half old hoax. Please visit the following website:
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=98893
Had this been a real virus one of 2 things would have happened:
1. you would have contracted it already and you wouldn?t have been able to receive your e-mail.
2. IT WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN LISTED ON CNN AND MCAFEE'S WEBSITE.
Furthermore the description of the virus as listed below should lead you to suspect that it is a hoax because this e-mail indicates that "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." If that were actually the case it would not be able to propagate because your e-mail client would not actually be able to send out e-mails to those on your contact list if your hard disk had just been "destroyed".
Lastly I would like to add that by "sector zero" the author is referring to the first sector on your hard disk, the first sector on your hard disk contains information about the partitions on that disk, if you were to wipe it the hard disk would only be unusable until you were to run a program such as fdisk and repartition your drive. Also if that were to happen to you the information on the drive would remain intact and a professional data recovery company would not have any trouble recovering the data (although it might be expensive).
doing my part to keep the internet sane
Erik
PS. Please DO NOT forward this e-mail to all your friends.
***************************************Origional E-Mail Text******************************************
Subject: 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 are 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 25 times than not at all.
So you've made it to the bottom of this long post, what do you think?
-spy
*****************************************************************************************************
All-
I have addressed this e-mail to you because your e-mail address appears along the line of the threads of this e-mail. YOU HAVE ALL BEEN TRICKED, this virus is nothing more than a year and a half old hoax. Please visit the following website:
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=98893
Had this been a real virus one of 2 things would have happened:
1. you would have contracted it already and you wouldn?t have been able to receive your e-mail.
2. IT WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN LISTED ON CNN AND MCAFEE'S WEBSITE.
Furthermore the description of the virus as listed below should lead you to suspect that it is a hoax because this e-mail indicates that "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." If that were actually the case it would not be able to propagate because your e-mail client would not actually be able to send out e-mails to those on your contact list if your hard disk had just been "destroyed".
Lastly I would like to add that by "sector zero" the author is referring to the first sector on your hard disk, the first sector on your hard disk contains information about the partitions on that disk, if you were to wipe it the hard disk would only be unusable until you were to run a program such as fdisk and repartition your drive. Also if that were to happen to you the information on the drive would remain intact and a professional data recovery company would not have any trouble recovering the data (although it might be expensive).
doing my part to keep the internet sane
Erik
PS. Please DO NOT forward this e-mail to all your friends.
***************************************Origional E-Mail Text******************************************
Subject: 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 are 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 25 times than not at all.
So you've made it to the bottom of this long post, what do you think?
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