Subject: Re: Virus (fwd)

From: "Shane O'Brien-Lynch" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 1997 22:19:59 +0800

Victor Guest wrote:

> From: "The Howell's" <[email-masked]>
> 
> Hey guys, I don't know if this mail I got has anything to do with April
> fools day, but just in case it doesn't I decided to pass it on.

> This information was received this morning from IBM, please
> share it with anyone that might access the Internet:

> If anyone receives mail entitled; PENPAL GREETINGS! please delete
> it WITHOUT reading it!!  This is a warning for all Internet users
> there is a dangerous virus propagating across the Internet
> through an e-mail  message entitled 'PENPAL GREETINGS!". DO NOT DOWNLOAD

Ho hum. This type of hoax re-emerges approximately once every 6 months
in my experience. It was called something else last time, but never
mind.

When you download mail, nothing happens. You are reading text. Nothing
is executed, which is required for viral infection. It's like saying "if
someone posts you a picture of a gun, duck"

The only way this causes problems is that people start sending mails
everywhere about it, clogging bandwidth and filling disks.

I guarantee this would not have come from IBM.

In an information age, lack of information is a dangerous thing.

Cheers
Shane