Virus Alert

[300winmag]

I recieved this email today, from a friend of mine the (computer geek).


I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent
around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message
with an attachment

entitled *POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK*, regardless of who sent it to you.

It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard
disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who
has your e -mail address in his/her contact list.

This is the reason you need to send this email to all your contacts. It
is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and
open it.

If you receive an email entitled: "POSTCARD," even though it was sent to
you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.
This is the hard drive virus, the worst kind announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair
yet for this kind of Virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector
of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

[41 mag fan]

I got that email last week. I deleted it thinking it could of been the virus itself

[cbrick]

I get a "You have a new greeting card" once every week or two. Nothing new about them. I've never opened one yet, no reason to start now.

Rick

[Tom W.]

This has been circulating for some years now......

[JLDickmon]

don't forget, it will cause ring around the collar and make your dog drink out of the toilet.

MY GOD! WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ME?!?!?!?!?!?

[375RUGER]

according to truth or fiction it's a hoax. maybe your friends computer got hacked.

[RugerFan]

A quote straight from Snopes;

“Computer viruses have been distributed through e-postcard notifications in the past, but current warnings of such viruses are generally outdated or outright hoaxes.”

[MtGun44]

Anyone that thinks that they are not under continuous bombardment by worms and viruses is
pretty out of touch. You are either protected or not. If you are protected, you still have to be
smart enough to know not to EVER click on something you are not sure of, especially zip files
sent from a stranger. Specific warnings are superfluous in general.

Bill

[darkroommike]

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp here's the whole article. I always CHECK FOR MYSELF anytime I get a virus warning, haven't seen a real virus threat yet. Almost as bad are all the "send a business card to Timmy' or "send a Christmas card to Jennifer in the hospital" posts, none of them are real either. And Bill Gates is NOT going to send you any money.

[garym1a2]

I just recently had a virus hit my work laptop. Mis could not clean it, now they had to wipe the hard drive. Good thing most data is backedup multiple locations.

[darkroommike]

I just recently had a virus hit my work laptop. Mis could not clean it, now they had to wipe the hard drive. Good thing most data is backedup multiple locations.

My point still is that by the time a virus warning is promulgated by email or forum thread the danger from that virus is long past, the makers of anti-virus software do a really good, albeit not perfect, job of constantly updating the anti-virus program on your computer, additionally the anti-virus programs run algorithms that constantly scan your machine for viruses, new viruses are often detected by "profiling", many "new" viruses are not new at all and are just variations on common themes that exploit known avenues of vulnerability. The best protection is to have a up-to-date antivirus program with good email protection running all the time, run the updates to your anti-virus software, scan all incoming emails, stay off sites with bad protection, do not open email attachments of unknown provenance, do not install software from third party sources without first doing your homework and don't take candy from strangers.