In a message dated 8/12/99 8:02:02 PM SA Eastern Standard Time,
macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu writes:
> It has been around for a while. There are several web sites that track
> these things (www.nai.com, www.ciac.org, etc). If you get this type of
> info and are not sure about the veracity of them, check the web before
> wasting bandwidth by propagating them around.
Well said Larry!
Here are a few tips that I have learned that will help sniff out hoaxes.
>"It will arrive on e-mail titled "CALIFORNIA." IBM and AOL have
>announced that it is VERY powerful, much more so than Melissa. There is
>NO remedy. It will eat (DESTROY) ALL your information on your hard
>drive and destroys Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
>
1. IBM is not in the business of announcing computer viruses.
2. Ditto AOL
3. Opening an e-mail (although this one did not say exactly this many do)
will NOT cause a virus to activate. Downloading attachments can activate a
virus.
4. The threat of seriousness "there is NO remedy" (oh my God, we're all
going to die!)
5. Look at the redundancy "It will destroy all the information on your hard
drive" AND "destroys Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer."
If all the info on your hard drive is destroyed, wouldn't your copy of
Netscape or IE be destroyed? Where do you keep your copy of IE or Netscape?
Mine is on my hard drive.
Anyway, check out the pages that Larry recommended, and I personally like
Computer Virus Myth home page (sorry don't have the URL handy) refer to them
when you get something sounds fishy, also they are good when you could use a
laugh.
Rick Ewald
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