ADMIN: OT Virus Warning

From: John I Jones <jijones@ix.netcom.com>

Glenn Simmons wrote:
> 
> From: Glenn Simmons <glsimmon@swbell.net>
> 
> If you receive mail from someone offering : WIN A HOLIDAY, don't open
> it!  It will destroy everything on your hard drive.  I just received
> this VIRUS warning from a friend in Canada via Australia.
> 

I know that at one time or another a lot of us (including me, btw) have
received one of these warnings and out of concern for others have sent it
along to them. It is, however, one of the policies of this list that we do not
forward virus warnings to the list. It is for a very simple reason: Most of
the warnings are in fact hoaxes, as this one is. The message is the virus
itself, that is to say the it does no harm but the originator gets
his/her/it's  kicks from seeing the warning being forwarded all over the place.

When you recceive one of these messages, you can most often find information
about it at:

http://www.stiller.com/holiday.htm

If you don't find that it is listed there, contact me directly and we can
investigate further. I have posted what the above site has to say about "Win a
Holiday" after my signature for those of you who are interested.

More information about viruses and hoaxes can be found at:

http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html

Glenn, thank you for your concern, I know it was well intentioned.



John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

John Jones 
To reply to me personally click on
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**********
The "Win a Holiday" Hoax!

There is very little that is original in this hoax. The originator seems to
have copied the old combined PenPal and "Unable to deliver mail" hoax.
and just modified some basic text.

The hoax begins:

      VIRUS  WARNING !!!!!!
      If you receive an email titled "WIN A HOLIDAY" DO NOT open it.

Typical signs of a hoax here: 

      All capital letters with many exclamation points in the title. This is
typical of most of the hoaxes (and many scams!) that we see.
      A warning to avoid email with a particular title. Almost all of the
virus hoaxes contain this type of directive. 

The hoax continues:

        It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this
        letter out to as many people as you can.

and above we see the other classic hoax indication (to forward the hoax to as
many people as you can.

The hoax now continues:

        This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people
        know about it. This information was announced yesterday
        morning from Microsoft;

A "new" virus would be no big deal. We see over 250 new viruses each month.
MicroSoft is not in the business of announcing viruses.

And the hoax goes on with the same statements we see in almost every hoax:

        please share it with everyone that might access the
        internet.  Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in our
        address book so that this may be stopped. Also, do not
        open or even look at any mail that says "RETURNED OR
        UNABLE TO DELIVER"

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