SR News: Chain Letter Virus Hoax Warning

The "Chain Letter " Virus Hoax!

You may have received a chain letter by  mail.  It  instructs  you  to  send
copies of the letter (and maybe money) to a number  of  people  and  usually
threatens you with bad luck if you refuse to comply. Someone decided that an
email version of this chain letter with a a threat of virus infection rather
than bad luck would be amusing. This hoax doesn't try to  extort  money  but
simply is intended to fool gullible people.

The "Chain Letter"hoax begins:


      "This is not a joke...if you do not forward this e-mail to 20
      other people..................... your computer will be a living
      hell thanks to one of our very own little ingenus viruses. I
      repeat this is not a joke this virus wil come to you only a week
      after you open this piece of mail in a very undiscreet e-mail If
      you open this e-mail after opening others, it just might come as a
      letter from your "buddy"

No, this isn't a "joke" but it's certainly a hoax. If you have been  reading
our hoax page, you will notice the characteristic  request  to  forward  the
hoax to others. This is also has the poor spelling that  is  found  in  many
such juvenile messages (e.g., ingenus, undiscreet).

The typical chain letter will threaten you with "bad luck"  if  you  do  not
mail it (and/or some money) to a  number  of  people.  This  version  simply
threatens you with a virus rather than "bad luck".  The  text  of  the  hoax
indicates you will get a virus sent via email. I have  explained  previously
that simply by reading email or even downloading attachments, you can not be
infected by a virus (Please read Common myths regarding viruses for  details
on the real threat of getting viruses via email.) The hoax continues:


      Watch out!

      You have one week..starting now.
      If this virus gets in it won't come back out.
      It will slowly delete 1 file a day from system IRQ files,
      startup files and
      win 95 kernels for registery address {1593338-489h985}
      Thank you for your time.......

      #:) hahahahaha

      SCREW YOU!!!


With the "hahahaha" and the "SCREW YOU!!!!" text, I would not have  expected
people to respond to this hoax but we have  received  copies  of  this  that
indicate quite a large number of people have followed  the  instructions  in
the hoax. Just as people continue to respond to paper  mail  chain  letters,
they seem gullible enough to respond to this hoax.  Fortunately,  this  hoax
doesn't make supernatural claims ("bad luck") but simply makes  claims  that
are impossible (being infected by a non-existent virus if you don't  forward
the hoax) so there's no reason to even  think  about  complying  this  chain
letter email hoax.

Update!

We have since seen almost a half-dozen variants on the above "Chain  Letter"
hoax. There's no point mentioning each one in  detail.  All  these  variants
share the characteristic that you are expected to  forward  the  hoax  to  a
number of people and either receive "bad fortune" if you don't  forward  the
hoax and/or (optionally) some type of reward if you  do  forward  the  hoax.
Most of these variants have omitted the "hahahaha" and the  "SCREW  YOU!!!!"
text.

Write to Stiller Research: support@stiller.com

                                     Copyright c 1998 Stiller Research.
                                    Document Last Modified April 27, 1998.

[=- 㡫  ୠ ᪨ 蠫 //  #2 //  1998  -=]
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