New Virus?

[ChrisC]

I got the following from a strange source. So take it with a pinch of sort, at a risk. Mind you I use Ubuntu so I'm not effected. Just for you Windows users, I would think.

ALERT: WORST VIRUS EVER - Worldwide News


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. 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 the subject: “A Virtual Card for You”. As soon as you get the mail, delete it!! Even if you know the sender!!!

[admin]

I don't know if this is a hoax or not, but I never open "cards" as a matter of principle.

[temp]

There's an idea called a "virus hoax". It's actually still pretty annoying because it causes increased internet traffic from people forwarding the email around who think it's a real notification.

You might find some links that report on which emails are hoaxes, for example:

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/secu ... hoaxes.jsp

Anyway, a hoax is just a harmless email warning about a virus that does not exist. The one you pasted pretty much follows the normal script for a virus hoax...complete with name dropping and threats, plus some blatantly silly comments that might fool some folks...for example "Worldwide News" what news organization is that? "Classified by microsoft"? last time I checked Microsoft is not in the business of classifying viruses unless it's caused by a vulnerability in their own products in which case they would point you to a security fix.

I once got an email warning me that a bad virus was going around that would set my computer on fire and burn my house down..hehe.
"This alert was received by an employee of Microsoft itself. " oooo, a real live employee of micosoft...this must be a bad one then *sarcasm*