Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

It’s by far the most-read weekly feature here on this blog. It’s what everyone talks about on Friday. It’s the ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame. It’s ON !

This week’s outrageous hoax is brought to you by the land of make-believe:

Subject: ****** VIRUS WARNING ******

Please read the attached warning issued today.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:

You should be alert during the next days:

Do not open any message with an attached filed called “Invitation” regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which “burns” the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called “invitation”, though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

There is not a single speck of logic or truth in this widely circulated E-Mail (or its numerous variants through the years). Someone with extremely limited computer and Internet technical knowledge obviously created this E-Mail way back in the day (late-1990s), and nearly a decade later it is still circulating all throughout cyberspace.

Would you believe that I actually received this E-Mail this past week at work from a coworker who actually thought that it was legitimate ? She sent it to dozens and dozens of people too, but I’m not angry about it at all. She unknowingly provides me with lots of material for this weekly feature. (If she only read this blog …)