"PENPAL GREETINGS" HOAX REVISITED

[Warren Fisher]

For those who read the recent "PENPAL VIRUS WARNING" hoax posted to this
list, you might be interested in this information from the Reed Organ
Society:

Subject:
           PENPAL GREETINGS ...
      Date:
           Mon, 17 Mar 1997 23:45:57 -0500
      From:
           peterson@rosnet.com (Edward Peterson)
        To:
           ROS@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk
       CC:
           RleeandPaula@worldnet.att.net
           1


.... is a crock of equine excrement.

E/  {Who suggests that folks check out these things in the proper places
on the web, i.e., the ones which deal with unmitigated hoaxes.  (The URL
escapes me at the moment...)


On Tue, 18 Mar 1997 01:37:45 +0000, "R. Lee Parks"
<RleeandPaula@worldnet.att.net>  wrote:

>Received the following notification at work. A "trojan horse" virus is
>invading I-net e-mail. If you get any message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!",
>delete it immediately without reading. It will destroy your hard drive AND
>propagate to any address that resides in YOUR mailbox. This appears to be a
>particularly nasty one. Please pass on the word.
>

Subject:
        More PENPAL GREETINGS!
  Date:
        Mon, 17 Mar 1997 23:59:07 -0500
  From:
        peterson@rosnet.com (Edward Peterson)
    To:
        ROS@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk


Dr. Archive-It-All suggests that those less inclined toward panic at
these hoaxes - all the more likely to increase over the college spring
break period - check out:

** Computer Virus Myths home page at www.Kumite.com/myths/home.htm

There are separate pages devoted to Good Times, PENPAL GREETINGS, and
several more that I've missed through the years.  The entire history of
them and the explanation of how they couldn't possible do *anything* to
anyone's computer are fully explained in layman's (Oops! lay*person's*)
language.

The best send up I've seen to date of the whole notion of these e-mail
viri is copied below:

><FWD MAIL>
>
>VIRUS ALERT!!....If you receive an e-mail message
>with "End-All Virus" in the subject line, don't open it.  If you do:
>End-All Virus will re-write your hard drive.  Not only that, it will
>scramble any disks that are even close to your computer..It will
>recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so that all your ice
>cream goes melty..It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit
>cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field
>harmonics to scratch any CDs you try to play...It will give your
>ex-boy/girlfriend your new telephone number..It will mix Kool-Aid into
>your fish tank..It will leave dirty socks on the coffee table when
>company comes over..It will detune your harp strings so that every other
>string is flat..It will hide your carkeys when you are late for work and
>randomly move your car around in parking lots so you can't find it..It
>will kick your dog..It is insidious and subtle..It is dangerous and
>terrifying to behold..It is also an interesting shade of mauve...End-All
>will give you Dutch Elm disease..It will leave the toilet seat up..And
>it will leave bacon cooking on the stove while it goes out to chase
>grade schoolers with your new snowblower...
>

I hope that is not too much levity on a serious subject.

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