Ed Moxley

A new virus....

I received this today in an e-mail, from a family member. I hope it's not true, but better safe , than sorry!



During the next several weeks be VERY cautious about opening or launching any e-mails that refer to the World Trade Center or 9/11 in any way, regardless of who sent it. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW, "WTC" STANDS FOR THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. REALLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL OPEN IT RIGHT AWAY, THINKING ITS A STORY RELATING TO 9/11!
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> BIGGGG TROUBLE !!!! DO NOT OPEN "WTC Survivor" It is a virus that will erase your whole "C" drive.. It will come to you in the form of an E-Mail from a familiar person. I repeat, a friend sent it to me, but called and warned me before I opened it. He was not so lucky and now he can't even start his computer!
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> Forward this to everyone in your address book. I would rather receive this 25 times than not at all. So, if you receive an email called "WTC Survivor", do not open it. Delete it right away! This virus removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll files) from your computer.
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> PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE!

Joseph DeMartino

As a general rule, any e-mail that contains the words "FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW" in ALL CAPS is crap. And passing it along does not make anyone "safer", it just clutters up the internet.

If there were realy a major virus threat like this (or major disease outbreak, dangerous consumer product or serious health risk) you'd be reading about it in the newspaper, hearing about it on radio and watching a story about it on television - not learning about it in an e-mail from your uncle Al's AOL account.

This particular hoax - word-for-word, down to the spelling of "BIGGGG" - has been wasting peoples' time and bandwidth since shortly after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. So whoever sent this is almost four years late with a warning that was bogus to begin with.

Whenever you get one of these messages do yourself (and everyone in your address book) a favor and check it out at the invaluable Snopes Urban Legend Reference Page

I appreciate the impulse to be helpful but, really, there is so much of this noise out there, sometimes drowning out the real threat warnings, that it pays to check first and post only when you're sure.

(And, again, be skeptical of these things. Ask if it makes any sense that you'd be hearing about whatever it is via an e-mail from someone who doesn't know much about computers, isn't a doctor, isn't in the news biz, etc. Are there specific details as to time, place, date, people in a news story? Did whoever sent it to you provide a link to a legit news site? Does a Google search of keywords in the e-mail turn up any real news items that can be matched to the e-mail's account? If the answers are "No", hit the delete button. Especially if the e-mail tells you to "SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!" )

Regards,

Joe

My Home Theater

My DVD Collection

Ed Moxley

I never have, and never will rush to Snopes, everytime I get an email. I'm sorry that it bothered you so much that I tried to save you and others here a possible nightmare and a lot of heartache. I promise I won't try to warn you............. ever again.

I'm glad it's not true, for obvious reasons. But, if it's a hoax........ so what? It did no harm at all (except wasted maybe one minute of your time........to read it) I figure it did more good than harm! It reminded me and others to be careful what you open in email.

I don't know that I believe everything that Snopes says. Why would someone start a hoax like this? It doesn't do any kind of harm at all. No one is asking for money. They don't even try to get you to visit a site somewhere. They are basically asking you to remind everyone you know, to be careful!. I understand how some sick-o's like to write and pass along virus'. They get a thrill of sorts from it. Where is the thrill to start a hoax like this? One that does absolutely no damage? Where's the thrill?

Again, I'm sorry it bothered you so bad. It won't happen again!

Christ Reynolds

welcome to the internet, glad you finally made it.
i dont think it bothered him at all, in fact, his post was pretty accurate and sensible.

CJ

And then when I feel so stuffed I can't eat anymore, I just use the restroom! And then I CAN eat more!

BrianB

The pleasure of seeing people start paniced threads about it on forums.


And yet you "rushed" to the HTF to post a warning about it instead.

high resolution ipod featuring dlp hd programming is the best, almost as good as playstation 2 with wega windows media on a super cd! ps2 and tivo do dolby tv with broadband hdtv!

Mike Voigt

Ed, I understand your concern, and appreciate your wanting to pass along a warning.

However, I for one get dozens of these kinds of messages. Well-intentioned, by and large, but the problem lies in mailbox cluttering. This is not an issue at the consumer level (though they can get upset about it), it is an issue both about storage space for ISPs (and company servers) as well as sheer bandwidth usage. The latter is an issue mostly for those who do not have high-speed access, or a smaller pipeline.

An example: we have some folks at work who are streaming radio to their PCs. What has happened to several of us is that we cannot get to our email server, nor internet, nor major production software. While streaming radio is considerably larger than these kinds of emails, the emails still spend a lot of bandwidth and storage space.

Regards, Mike

Joseph DeMartino

No, but I'll bet you beat the hell out of every straw man you can build.

I'm so glad that you're not going to do something I never suggested. Where exactly did I tell you to check Snopes "every time [you] get an e-mail." I just suggested that you check the ones a little knowledge and 30 seconds critical scrutiny would identify as questionable.


And I'm sorry that it bothered you so much that I tried to save you the embarassment of passing years-old, obvious hoaxes along to everyone in your address book (and them the bother of deleting your messages.)


Ditto.


So, because you don't understand what motivates the creators of these hoaxers, the careful research and reporting at Snopes must be wrong. Yeah, that makes sense. Did you bother clicking on the link and reading their discussion of the WTC hoax? Didn't think so.


It didn't bother me. I politely pointed out that you had been taken in by a hoax - without getting defensive about it, being rude or personally attacking you. I offered some sensible advice, some pointers on the general problem of hoax e-mails (not just fake viruses) and a provided source of further information. You chose to take it as some kind of personal insult. Your problem, not mine.


Now if only something could teach people to be careful about uncritcally believing what is in the e-mail that they do open, we'd really be making some progress.

Regards,

Joe

My Home Theater

My DVD Collection

Francois Caron

Discipline time! They're wasting valuable company resources. We've had problems with IM streaming radio preventing everyone from doing any REAL work.

Thomas Newton

That message IS the very virus of which it "warns"!

It's a social virus, as opposed to a biological or technological one. The people who fall for it get to unwittingly play the part of a biological cell that churns out more copies of virus RNA.