I just received a note from my Dad about the “Invitation” virus. Has anyone else heard about this?
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:
You should be alert during the next days:
Do not open any message with an attached filed called “Invitation” regardless of who sent it .
It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch 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, that is why you should 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 “invitation”, though sent by a friend, do not open it and 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.
SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.
I will still be on the lookout for it anyway.
Does Webroot Spysweeper protect against this virus?
Lee
It’s a hoax that has been around for years.
I took this directly from the Snopes site referenced above:
"Origins: The classics never go away, it seems, so just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics someone has dusted off an old virus warning hoax (most commonly seen in its incarnation as the “[Virtual] Card for You” hoax) and reintroduced it as an “Olympic Torch” virus warning (also known as the “Invitation virus”). The same basic hoax has been circulating in various languages since at least 2000, with occasional changes along the way. No such (incurable) virus exists, has been identified by McAfee, or was reported on by CNN. "
I don’t know from Webroot Skysweeper; but I think this virus can be warded off with a grain of salt.
This sounds like the type of virus last month that never was.
Allan.
How many of your IT groups at your workplaces cautioned you about this? Ours is incredibly fast at advising us about viruses and mandating we run the latest virus definitions from McAfee and/or Symantec…I have heard NOTHING. Pass me the salt Mr. Bob.
Sorry, I did not intend to start a false rumor. I am glad that if it is just a hoax. But the hoaxter still got his/her jollies I suppose. The hoaxters, hackers and virus nuts all have preverse mentalities. They should be “downloaded”, deleted and burned on a disc burner.
It is indeed a “virus”, but not in the traditional sense. The intent of this type of mail is to get everyone forwarding the e-mail to everyone they know which the perpetrator hopes will overload the network servers and slow everything down. By using a “virus” scare, the intent is to have everyone panic to make this happen as fast as possible.
A secondary affect is that those folks with real e-mail borne viruses will continue to propagate the viruses they already have (and are usually unaware of).
All e-mails that end with “forward this to everyone you know” are attempting to do the same thing. The other trick is to use the “cute” e-mails. These can sometimes be more successful in flooding the network than the “panic” ones.
Regards,
Roy