Email "Warnings" About Computer Viruses "Postcard"

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ([i]BIG VIRUS COMING - THE WORST YET. CONFIRMED BY SNOPES http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! I checked Snopes (URL above:), 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,' 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 why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus 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. [/i]) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I received this email. Unlike many, I check. Worried that the visible URL might not be the URL of the link, I copied the snopes.com address given instead of clicking on it. Some emails, you should know, are in HTML format. In such case the text of a link (which looks like a URL) might not be the actual href value which the browser goes to. So, I was being paranoid. First, does Snopse.com really exist and is it save to visit that URL. (Pay attention to spelling. Snopes.com and Snoops.com and Snoopes.com might not be the same website at all even if they look the same. A person could register Soopes.com and mirror Snopes.com with the exception of including adware downloads or other trogans.) Snopes.com does have an article on Wikipedia.(1)There are other mentions found in Google that indicate it is a sight tracking Urban Legends. (There are also some indications they were serving up adware but have stopped after the practice became known.) There are other ways to check if a URL is safe to browse.(2)(3) In our case, Dr. Web Online says the site is clean. Which, again presumes we can trust Dr. Web Online. (We will accept Firefox's endorsement of the site as enough and move one.) Ok, we should be safe to visit the site. Here we find that Postcard viruses are real, but – specifically – the email warning sent to me is a hoax. Of course, by reading the Doom and Gloom pronouncement of the Email, I was predisposed to believe it was a hoax from the start. So, do you check up on claims like this sent to your inbox? If so, do you warn the initiator of the email your deductions or just leave it lie? Did you find my article informative? :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Various included footnotes: 1) Snopes.com, Wikipedia - ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snopes.com ) A website debunking urban legends. 2) Pre-Scanning of URL links for Safe Web Surfing - ( http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/03/pre-scanning-of-url-links-for-safe-web.html ) 3) Dr Web, Online - ( http://online.drweb.com/?url=1 ) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------