Fighting malware and spam

Olympic Torch

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

Hoax text

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 file 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.

	

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.

Poll

Malware Prevalence

Agent
OnlineGames
Kryptik
Heuristic/generic
Heuristic/generic