POSTED BY
on 2:40 pm
under
I received the following an email from Joy recently which she forwarded on
It was warning of the next big virus coming around
The body of the email included this info:
" You should be alert during the next 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.
... send this e-mail to all your contacts "
As you have probably guessed this message is a hoax
How do I know?
Whenever I get one of these types of messages I highlight an unusual part of the message (eg Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C) and paste it into a Google search
The first site that came up is this http://www.hoax-slayer.com/olympic-torch-virus-hoax.html
This explains how it is an old hoax re-done and is just a time waster
A description from the site says - Email hoaxes spread misinformation, waste bandwidth, and lessen the effectiveness of email as a communication medium.
So why would someone start this sort of thing?
It's just a malicious act and the perpetrators get a kick out of seeing the mail go around the world
Whilst these emails don't do any direct harm like a virus would, or steal your information (eg credit or bank details) like a phishing email would, they do waste your time and valuable resources
Lets imagine that there's 20 of us who are all friends and care enough like Joy did to let our friends know
If we all send it to each other that's 400 emails
Now imagine if a company of 200 employees does the same thing
That's 40,000 emails all on the same day which will clog up and slowdown their email, possibly halting some productive work
Each user has multiple copies of the one email to delete, wasting their time and so on
I think the solution is this:
Contact Information
This email is brought to you on behalf of the Mulligrubs - Milton Ulladulla Internet & Computers Users Group
http://mulligrubs.shoalhaven.info/
The Mulligrubs meet on the last Thursday of each month at the Ulladulla CTC - Top of the Town Complex, Ulladulla NSW 2539
Send comments, suggestions, or questions about this newsletter to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
You can subscribe or unsubscribe from this discussion group at any time.
Simply send a request to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
All names and addresses will be kept confidential and will never be sold or used for any other purpose than forwarding of this newsletter
It was warning of the next big virus coming around
The body of the email included this info:
" You should be alert during the next 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.
... send this e-mail to all your contacts "
As you have probably guessed this message is a hoax
How do I know?
Whenever I get one of these types of messages I highlight an unusual part of the message (eg Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C) and paste it into a Google search
The first site that came up is this http://www.hoax-slayer.com/olympic-torch-virus-hoax.html
This explains how it is an old hoax re-done and is just a time waster
A description from the site says - Email hoaxes spread misinformation, waste bandwidth, and lessen the effectiveness of email as a communication medium.
So why would someone start this sort of thing?
It's just a malicious act and the perpetrators get a kick out of seeing the mail go around the world
Whilst these emails don't do any direct harm like a virus would, or steal your information (eg credit or bank details) like a phishing email would, they do waste your time and valuable resources
Lets imagine that there's 20 of us who are all friends and care enough like Joy did to let our friends know
If we all send it to each other that's 400 emails
Now imagine if a company of 200 employees does the same thing
That's 40,000 emails all on the same day which will clog up and slowdown their email, possibly halting some productive work
Each user has multiple copies of the one email to delete, wasting their time and so on
I think the solution is this:
- Have a good antivirus program running to check emails in case these sorts of things have a virus attached
- investigate the option of spam filters.
Some ISP's eg scoastnet have user configurable filters in place
And most free accounts (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail) have quite good spam filtering as well - Do a quick Google search for any terms listed in these sort of emails before forwarding them on
and nicely let the person who sent it to you know that it is a hoax and pass on this advice :)
Contact Information
This email is brought to you on behalf of the Mulligrubs - Milton Ulladulla Internet & Computers Users Group
http://mulligrubs.shoalhaven.info/
The Mulligrubs meet on the last Thursday of each month at the Ulladulla CTC - Top of the Town Complex, Ulladulla NSW 2539
Send comments, suggestions, or questions about this newsletter to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
You can subscribe or unsubscribe from this discussion group at any time.
Simply send a request to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
All names and addresses will be kept confidential and will never be sold or used for any other purpose than forwarding of this newsletter
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