Not only should you give no credence to these virus alerts, but forwarding a
virus alert or a hoax is a form of a virus (or worm) itself. Sometimes the
whole point of these alerts is to get people to forward them and clog up the
internet, email servers and people's emails. It's tough because people feel
like they're doing others a favor, but you shouldn't forward a virus alert,
especially if you don't check it out to make sure it isn't a hoax or
malicious first. I've also seen virus alerts that actually encourage people
to take detrimental actions, such as delete files from their system that are
critical for the system's operation. Here's a good article on why you
shouldn't forward virus alerts:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/a/virushoax.htm.
--
Christopher
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-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kevin LaRose
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 2:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] this is a virus:
Here is the actual Snopes link:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
You will find that the verbiage used in this virus warning is almost
word-for-word the same as in the Snopes link, down to the allegation that
it's better to receive this message 25 times. In all cases, exercise caution
and all should be well. Honestly, it's come to the point where I give zero
credence to these so-called virus warnings.
Kevin L.
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