virus warning

[dot.hawkes]

Hi, i just had an email from Plamfy about a new virus, anyone else heard of this on and how real a threat is it? And is the techno jargon in this correct?

Dear All,

PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE

Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it!

If you get an email along the lines of "Osama Bin Laden Captured" or "Osama Hanged" don't open the attachment.

This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel.

Be considerate & send this warning to whomever you know.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:


You should be alert during the next few days:
Do not open any message with an attached filed called


"Invitation" regardless of who sent it.


It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer.


This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts.


It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.


If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.


This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.


This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

[vehelpfulguy]

do not inform everyone.

this is just a scare mongering note.

there is no virus that can delete every file on your hard disk.

do you believe every note you get.

if not why do you believe this one.

it is just a form of chain letter trying to cause panic in the pc comunity.

this has been going round since at least 2004.

see here

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp

[vehelpfulguy]

Can I ask everyone.

If you get a note about some virus or other DO NOT pass it on.

Most are fakes.

If you are not sure then search the web for something to back it up.

Most of the time you will find they are just scams.

[dot.hawkes]

errrr, i asked the question how real is it, I don't believe everything I read and get sent at all, which is why i asked in this topic!!!!!!!!!!! Your tone is patronising, i am not an idiot, i think before I blindly follow instructions in an email, as you can tell from my thread.!

Dotty
xxxxx

[vehelpfulguy]

As long as your anti-virus software is up to date you should have no problem with viruses.

There is no excuse for not having anti-virus software installed.

AVG do an excellent free anti-virus and it is updated regularly.

You can download it from here

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Just make sure you update it and run it regularly.

[dot.hawkes]

I have Norton and it is excellent, thankyou.

[maviscoull]

i got informed of this a few weeks ago via an email from my sister and yes i did forward it to all in my address book. you just never know !!

[maviscoull]

i too have norton. and i bet there is one virus out there that will do damage.....no matter how secure your pc is !!

[vehelpfulguy]

By putting the full text of the e-mail in the forum it was just as bad as forwarding it to people, possibly causing confusion amongst PC users.

A quick search in Google for Osama Hanged (which is what I did ) would have found the answer within seconds.

That is why my note was patronizing.

Years ago I worked for a company where a man got an e-mail telling him a certain file was a virus and to delete it.

Without checking with anyone he deleted the file, and then forwarded it to all the people in his distribution list.

It turns out the file was NOT a virus and was an important Windows file.

He had to send out a groveling apology.

Think carefully before forwarding ANY virus e-mail.

[dot.hawkes]

No VHG I do not agree with your comments there, anyone reading my question should have understood i was questioning the value of Plamfy's warning email and the full email was copied as it was rather elongated and would not have transferred if i had merely condensed it, and we use this site instead of Google don't we? if we used Google we wouldn't need this site!!!!!!!!!!! If I cannot ask this sort of pertinent question in IT then what should I ask, and you are implying I have been irresponsible when as i said if you had read my question slower you may have gathered I was sceptical of the email and in no way scaremongering.

[matty34]

i doubt this is true. but all email centre. like outlook or hotmail n yahoo and that have an automatic virus scanner which it has to go in to then if it does it will be put in to spam or junkbox and say VIRUS IS CONTAINED and just delete it. or if it gets throguh u can right click it and scan for virus.

[matty34]

vehelpfulguy i would just like to say. there is a virus that can delete everyfile on a harddisk as my friend made one. and we tested it on his pc. and it wipes everything off. but yeahh dont pass things on. (btw this person has stopped making virus's)

[ugly_bob]

but anyway, dot, to answer your question.
These sort of messages do the rounds every so often. It's nothing to worry about. The messages are generally more an annoyance than a warning, and the very fact that it says "PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:" always worries me, as that is exactly what a virus would want you to do.

[Garamond]

vehelpfulguy. You don't sound very helpful to me. Someone got a note about a virus and passed it on. Quite good of her I'd have thought. Isn't that what we're here for? So it may not be true, do you HAVE to snear? Don't know about you but I'd rather be a bit confused than be infected by a virus anytime.
People like you really make me sick. You know a bit about something then look down yer nose at those who know not quite so much.
Who made you monitor?