Family Pictures/Pictures of Family "Virus" Hoax

The Family Pictures/Pictures of Family "Virus" Email Warning Is A Hoax

by Bruce P. Burrell (bpb@umich.edu)
for the U-M Virus Busters (virus.busters@umich.edu)

Last significant update: 09 March 2001

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

Thanks to Debbie Prater for first bringing this to our attention on 26 February, 2001.

Lord, but the hoaxters are in a rut. This one is particularly foolish, stealing text from other older hoaxes:


Subject:        New Virus

DO NOT OPEN "NEW PICTURES OF FAMILY" It is a virus that will erase your
whole "C" drive.

Standard scare tactics. Compare with the Pretty Park hoax.


It will come to you in the form of an E-Mail FROM A
FAMILIAR PERSON I repeat a friend sent it to me, but called & warned me
before I opened it.
He was not so lucky and now he cant even start his computer!
Forward this to everyone in your address book.
I would rather receive this 25 times than not at all.

Again, a straight theft from the Pretty Park hoax. Yawn. The only things changed are that

"Pretty Park" became "NEW PICTURES OF FAMILY"
"from a familiar person" is now in CAPITAL LETTERS, and
"she" is now "he".

Either this is from the same hoaxter, or there are two equally stupid dorks out there writing hoaxes.


Also: Intel announced that a new and very destructive virus was discovered
recently.  If you receive an email called "FAMILY PICTURES," do not open it.
Delete it right away! This virus removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll
files) from your computer. Your computer will not be able to boot up

Plagiarism! Compare with the Internet Flower hoax. It's the exact text with "FAMILY PICTURES" replacing "An Internet Flower For You".

Pitiful.

Please do not forward this -- or any other hoax -- to all your friends.

Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that this is a hoax. For this particular hoax, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/fampics.html)
For virus or hoax info, please see our main page (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) or go to another reputable site, like The Urban Legends Reference Pages (leaving our site).

-BPB

Last updated: Wednesday, 02-Jan-2002 17:45:35 EST.
University of Michigan Virus Busters - virus.busters@umich.edu

visits to this page since 09 March 2001 0:40 EST