virus

[moppy]

hi everyone, just had an email from my daughter , she has warned me of a new virus going round , the most destructive one yet. Dont open any attachments unless you are absolutly certain you know who it is. If you get this virus you will not recover from it .

[jake-the-peg]

This sounds an awful lot like a hoax.

There are a number of famous hoaxes "jesus loves you" and "pen pals" are two of particular note.

Normally they are written when someone too lazy or not bright enough to write a real virus gets bored.

Typical hoaxes go like this

Microsoft has today warned of a really bad new virus for which there is no known fix. All antivirus companies are unable to detect it.

It will wreck your computer, email all your files to everybody, drink all your beer and run off with your wife (OK I made the last two up)

Tell everybody you know!!!!

If you mail everybody and everybody tells everybody they know it soon saturates the web and can block things up better than any real virus ever could!

Here's some more information about virus hoaxes and how to spot them
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxInfo.html


as they say "When in doubt don't send it out"

[vehelpfulguy]

I must agree with jake-the-peg

PLEASE dont believe every e-mail you get.

I get regular e-mails promising me millions if I give my bank details to a man in Africa.

If you get an e-mail about viruses then check on the web sites for companies like Norton, Symantec etc who give regular virus advice.

Your advice above is so general it is no help at all.

The rule is ALWAYS avoid opening any attachements you are not sure of ALL the time.

As long as you have an up to date anti virus program it should catch any virus.

I have AVG (free virus program) and twice this week it has warned me that a e-mail attachement had a virus.