THERE IS A NEW VIRUS BEING SENT TO via EMAIL CALLED "IT TAKES GUTS TO SAY JESUS".

If you receive an email titled "It Takes Guts to Say Jesus" DO NOT OPEN IT. It will erase everything on your hard drive. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; AOL states that this is a very dangerous virus, and that there is NO remedy for it at this time. It uses the reformat function from Norton Utilities causing it to completely erase the hard drive. It has been designed to work with Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It destroys Macintosh and IBM compatible computers. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 14, 1999

Answers

Er, thanks Michael. I won't question the veracity of this (although a link would have been nice), but I will point out that the FBI predicts 200,000 new viruses or variants by the end of the year.

At one thread per virus, that's a whole of ways to say "Beware email".

Thanks anyway.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 14, 1999.

Link or address please... thanks

-- (link@link.edu), December 14, 1999.

Sorry, this info was provided by my supervisor at work, his brother, who works for the FBI, alerted him. If I locate a link, I will get it to all of you.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 14, 1999.

This is a hoax.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/jesus-hoax.html

-- hoaxbuster (link@link.org), December 14, 1999.

Hoax

http://vil.mcafee.com/dispHoax.asp?id=vh10053

-- Bob (bob@bob.bob), December 14, 1999.

HOAX, and not a very original one at that.

-- me (me@some.where), December 14, 1999.

Looks we all posted this at about the same time...

I will never understand why people are so quick to post or forward these hoaxes, when it only takes about 2 minutes to go to mcafee and check it out........

-- Bob (bob@bob.bob), December 14, 1999.

Sorry, this info was provided by my supervisor at work, his brother, who works for the FBI, alerted him. If I locate a link, I will get it to all of you.

Michael, assuming you're still reading this post, please notify your supervisor that the virus is a HOAX. Perhaps he should tell his brother in the FBI also.

Assuming, of course, that you're not just a TROLL.

-- (hoax@hoax.hoax), December 14, 1999.

You all beat me to it..grin. I get emails from various sources with a fearful tone quite often. I give them the url to Symantec's Virus Hoax page in hopes that it'll free up a little more space on server's HD's.

It's a good idea to go to the Symantec site and bookmark the page. That way next time someone sends you a warning email or see a warning on the thread as here, simply go to that page and be assured you're ok or seek the downloaded fix.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), December 14, 1999.

Why worry about the new viruses, the first virus to every be created is about to hit us January 1st and it is so deeply buried in the system that there is no cure

-- drew (It's all over but the weeping and gnashing@of teeth.com), December 14, 1999.

Sorry, have alerted him of it being a hoax, sent him the link to symantac, should have investigated it better myself, didn't mean to waste your time. Sorry.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 14, 1999.

Ladylogic-- And your excuse is?

-- duh (duh@clueless.com), December 14, 1999.

SYSOPS, please delete this link, I feel like an idiot and don't need everyone else to recognize that I might be, ARGH.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 14, 1999.

Michael, perhaps you need more years to understand there's no such thing as a stupid question or anything wrong with trying to alert folks to a problem you've discovered. I'm sure we all appreciate your efforts to help us avoid problems with our PC's. Don't be so hard on yourself.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), December 14, 1999.

Michael, perhaps you need more years to understand there's no such thing as a stupid question or anything wrong with trying to alert folks to a problem you've discovered. I'm sure we all appreciate your efforts to help us avoid problems with our PC's. Don't be so hard on yourself.

I have to disagree. I mean, he's not an idiot or anything like that, but virus "hoaxes" can end up being as dangerous as a real live virus in terms of lost productivity and excessive email traffic. The hoax does indeed "spread" just like a real virus causing people to waste their time reading the message, processing it, and probably sending it on to even MORE people like a chain letter. Who knows how many other people Michael's supervisor or his brother has told and how much more time is now being wasted as a result.

If there's anything to "pass on," it's the address of the Symantec virus website so that we can help to keep these hoaxes from spreading. I know Michael has already done much to help solve this problem by passing the address on to his supervisor. Hopefully, they will pass THAT on so that they won't be wasting their time. Great work, Michael!

-- (hoax@hoax.hoax), December 14, 1999.