Fighting malware and spam

Join the crew

The following is the text usually shown in the Join the crew hoax email. There may be other variations on a similar theme, as well as other language versions.

Hoax text

If you receive an e-mail titled JOIN THE CREW or PENPALS DO NOT open
it!!!!! It will erase EVERYTHING on your hard drive! PENPAL appears to
be a friendly letter asking you if you are interested in a
penpal.....but by the time you read this letter it is TOO late.

The Trojan horse virus will have already infected the boot sector of
your hard drive, destroying all the data present. It is a self-
replicating virus, and once the message is read it will AUTOMATICALLY
forward itself to anyone who's e-mail address is present in your box!!!
This virus will destroy your hard drive and holds the potential to
DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your box and whose
mail is in their box and so on and on!!!!!!

So delete any message titled PENPAL or JOIN THE CREW This virus can do
major DAMAGE to worldwide networks!!!!

PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND PEOPLE IN YOUR MAILBOXES.
AOL HAS SAID THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS VIRUS AND THERE IS NO REMEDY FOR
THIS YET.
	

VB reminds users: if you receive a virus warning message, do not forward the message to all your friends/colleagues, as it may suggest in the text. If you have verified that the message is a hoax, simply delete it. If you are unsure, forward the message to your IT administrator. Failing that, forward it to hoax@virusbtn.com. It is possible that you may receive a hoax email with a file attachment. Since it is possible that these attachments could be infected VB advises such files to be be treated with the same caution as any other unexpected message attachment and urges users not to open them.

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