Childrens' books and Virus Warning

[Warren Fisher]

Don,

Who at IBM forwarded this warning?  Viruses can only operate from
executable programs, i.e. .exe,.bat,or .com!  Email is just text!
Warnings such as this one, are hoaxes that are propagated by the same
people who do viruses and for the same reason.  To have us all running
around chasing our tails!

Unfortunately, your proposal about the childrens books is also now
suspect.  Which is unfortunate if it is true, because now I will have to
contact them for verifaction before proceeding further. I suggest that
other Pianotech members hold off on this until further notice.

Don, a good rule of thumb is to forward only material that is from some
sort of official source and a responsible person.

With deep regrets,

Warren Fisher

Don Rose wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Subject: children books & VIRUS WARNING!!!
>
> This has been verififed to be true. The email doesn't even have to say
> anything.... the Houghton-Mifflin publishing co. is giving books to children's
> hospitals; how many books they give depends on how many emails they receive
> from people around the world.  for every 25 emails they receive, they give one
> book. All you have to do is email share@hmco.com, and put "Books for Kids" in
> the subject field.  Hope you can spare the seconds...and let your friends know.
> So far they only have 3, 400 messages...last year they reached 23,000.
>
> --- Forwarded Message from somebody trustworthy in New York City ---
>
> VIRUS WARNING
>
> This information was received this morning from IBM, please share it with
> anyone that might access the Internet.
> If anyone receives mail entitled:  PENPAL GREETINGS!     Please delete it
> WITHOUT
> reading it.  ON NO ACCOUNT BE TEMPTED TO OPEN AND READ THE MESSAGE.
>
> This is a warning for all Internet users.  There is a dangerous virus
> propagating across the Internet through an e-mail message entitled 'PENPAL
> GREETINGS!'.  DO NOT OPEN ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL GREETINGS!"  The
> message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you are interested in a
> penpal, but by the time you open it to read it, it is too late.  The 'trojan
> horse' virus will have already infected the boot sector of your hard drive,
> destroying all of the data present.  It is a self-propagating virus, and once
> the message is read, it will AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone whose
> e-mail address is present in YOUR mailbox.  This virus will destroy your hard
> drive, and holds the potential to destroy the hard drive of anyone whose mail
> is in your in-box, and whose mail is in their in-box and so on.  If this virus
> keeps getting passed, it has the potential to do a great deal of damage to
> computer networks worldwide.
>
> Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon as you see it.
>  And pass this message along to all of your friends, relatives and the other
> readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are on.
>
> Regards, Don Rose (drose@dlcwest.com)




--
Warren D. Fisher
fish@communique.net
Registered Piano Technician
Piano Technicians Guild
New Orleans Chapter 701