Thanks for info, I will be very cautious.

Thanks Kathy for sharing the information with us.

Hi Kathy, Thank you for the alert. Your Good Friend Deborah

Hello everyone, Thank you Dave for your commonsense approach. In the past I have sent virus warnings to my various mailing lists and then found that they were hoaxes. It is very embassessing when this happens and I am made to look like a fool to the members of my lists. At one stage I had an Adlandpro Forum about whether these virus warnings are true or false. I am always skeptical now when I see virus warnings and I wait to see what happens next. Thank you once again Dave. If there are viruses lurking, check your anti-virus program providers for details first. Always keep your virus definitions data up to date as well. Most importantly, do not open any attachments in your email from people you do not know. Most emailers who send attachments these days always let you know first. Also most email programs have anti virus programs built in to screen email attachments just in case. Have a good weekend, Sincerely, Christine Gleeson aka CurrencyLass Sydney, Australia

The email above first surfaced in February, 2006, just days before the opening ceremonies of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. It is a reworking of early hoaxes around since 2002 that warned against opening e-mails titled A Card For You and WTC Survivor, and is no more true Virus warnings play on common societal fears that something we do, such as unknowingly opening an infected file, will cause us a great deal of heartache and not just a little embarrassment, since your infection will undoubtedly spread to others. Just as many legitimate viruses key in on current events to coax their victims into unleashing their bugs, so do hoax creators use newsworthy names and events in increase the 'fear factor' and perceived timeliness of the tome. Then, they tell you that you could be key not only into protecting your own, but also that you have a responsibility to your friends and family to share the information with them - that you are their only defense against malicious hackers. Yet, in the 'real world,' relying on e-mailed virus warnings to ensure the safety of your computer and the data it contains is foolhardy at best and suicidal - technologically speaking - at worst. The so-called advisories are almost always false. Even when they do have an ounce of truth to them, they are either blown out of proportion (such as in the case of the Osama Bin Laden virus warning) or devoid of any real information or advice that would truly help you avoid or clean an infection. They serve only to make us paranoid and, in some cases, can do more harm than good (e.g., forwarding them increases your exposure to spam and scams). True protection from unwanted intrusions on your data and hardware comes from active, up-to-date, real-time antivirus software. These programs are inexpensive, effective and easy to install. If you are currently browsing the internet without current antivirus protection, you are asking for trouble - trouble that all the forwarded e-mail warnings in the world won't prevent. For more that you can do to make sure your computer is as safe as it can be, please read Protecting Your PC at breakthechain.org