The "PENPAL GREETINGS! Virus" Is A Hoax

Last significant update: 10 December 1996

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

Yet another email hoax: PENPAL GREETINGS! "virus"

As usual, we see another batch of silliness similar to other hoaxes like the "Good Times" nonsense.

General rules:

1. The more exclamation points in a message, the more likely it is to be bogus. Of course, one can write a hoax with no exclamation points too, but it -is- a tipoff.

2. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a virus merely by reading email --a virus must execute to infect.

Note 1: Some email programs allow one to run email attachments automatically -- for instance to launch an application or load a document into Word. This is a Bad Idea; do not allow your email reader to do this. You should scan all files you receive (or just delete them, if you weren't expecting to get them) with an antivirus program first.

Note 2: As far as I know, no email program has as the DEFAULT the option to launch as in Note 1. Some do have it, though; cc:Mail has the option, but it is *not* the default (in the current version, anyway).

Note 3: As far as I know, no email program in common use at the University of Michigan even has this option; Pine certainly doesn't, and I don't think Eudora or MailDrop do either. More on this when I know for sure.

3. 3. If you get a copy of this hoax by email, PLEASE reply to the sender to let him or her know it is a hoax. Provide our web address too, if you would (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) so we can help stamp out this plague.

Thanks!

-BPB

Text of "PENPAL GREETINGS!" Hoax follows:

>    -------------------------[Original Message]--------------------------
>
>    Subject:  Virus Alert
>    Importance:  High
>
>    If anyone receives mail entitled: PENPAL GREETINGS! please delete it
>    WITHOUT reading it.  Below is a little explanation of the message, and
>    what it would do to your PC if you were to read the message.  If you
>    have any questions or concerns please contact  SAF-IA Info Office on
>    697-5059.
>
>    This is a warning for all internet users - there is a dangerous virus
>    propogating across the internet through an e-mail message entitled
>    "PENPAL GREETINGS!".  DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL
>    GREETINGS!"
>
>    This message 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 of 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 mailbox!
>
>    This virus will DESTROY your hard drive, and holds the potential to
>    DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your inbox, and
>    who's mail is in their inbox, and so on.  If this virus remains
>    unchecked, it has the potntial 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 and
>    relatives, and
>    the other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are
>    on, so that they are not hurt by this dangerous virus!!!!
>
>
>    ---End of forwarded mail 

   End of of "PENPAL GREETINGS!" Hoax

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