October 19th 2005.
[b]"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 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. "[/b]
My Son has just read this from a Game site he is a Member of. I’ll do some research and am sorry I don’t know if this is a legitimate report, but in the meantime I feel I should share this information. If it’s a false alarm, no harm done, and excuse me for the lack of verification.
* falsely claim to describe an extremely dangerous virus
* use pseudo-technical language to make impressive-sounding (but impossible) claims
* falsely claim that the report was issued or confirmed by a well-known company
* ask you to forward it to all your friends and colleagues
As usual, you are urged not to pass on warnings of this kind, as the continued re-forwarding of these hoaxes simply wastes time and email bandwidth.
It is possible that you may receive a hoax via email with a file attached. Obviously, such file attachments should be treated with caution as they may be virus infected. Sophos recommends deleting virus hoax emails, whether they contain file attachments or not.
Comments: With so many real viruses wreaking havoc on computers and networks worldwide, it's a shame we have to cope with false warnings like the above. There is no such threat as the "Sector Zero" or "A Card for You" (aka "A Virtual Card for You") virus. If you receive a copy of this alert, just delete it.
As a general rule, acting on forwarded email warnings is the worst way to try to protect yourself from viruses — and not just because the majority of emailed virus warnings are hoaxes. In a sense, all such warnings — even the accurate ones — are misleading, because they leave the false impression that as long as you’re on the alert for file attachments with specific names, you will be safe. The reality is that you put yourself at risk by downloading any executable file by any name — and some viruses are even designed to rename themselves or email copies of themselves under randomly varying names.
Much, much, much more important than heeding emailed virus warnings are the simple preventative measures of:
Always being very careful what you download
Scanning your hard drive regularly with up-to-date antivirus software.
OOPS !!!
Your right Eddy, sorry for the false alarm. My Son is 12 , and I should’ve researched before posting. :-[
Delete the thread maybe , or it maybe a reminder for others. Moderator’s decision.
Happy for us the son of Abraxas’ was wrong, but this is a golden present for a virus writer who wants to send you the card, if you just think this is a hoax. That would be a beautiful way of social engineering. First convince people that it is a hoax, there visors lowered go for the attack. I know it is a hoax, but if I get a card from somebody I do not know, I go for delete or mailwash it.
Exactly Polonus, good point and I don’t think that “It tells something about the people who are still falling for it” is quite true… people are cautious in their nature (of course not all of them) and it’s better if that’s every single person’s attribute.
Sell them something as it’s a hoax, and then when they are most vulnerable attack them with exactly the same weapon…
I know you can’t delete a post, only edit it, so I’m not sure if you can delete a Topic even if you started it once others have contributed, That would be a moderator task.
However, it still gives a valuable lesson, don’t take what you see as fact until you have checked it out first. This is a good place to start http://www.vmyths.com/, as is google.
Also maybe it has something to do with the curent forum theme you are using or something… or maybe with number of posts (like those status words under our names) or something third… I have no clue…
:-\