CNN announced worst virus ever is this true

freya18th

Thanks for replies it as put my mind at rest.Not everyone is is computer savvy like some who replied, we all have had to learn and with each thing that happens we learn a bit more. Thanks from a silver surfer

albertross_2

Don't take offense, it was probably a slow night..

judderman62

freya18th wrote: »

Thanks for replies it as put my mind at rest.Not everyone is is computer savvy like some who replied, we all have had to learn and with each thing that happens we learn a bit more. Thanks from a silver surfer

Okay for your future benefit the Judderman quick guide to spotting warnings that are LIKELY to be hoaxes.

Quite easy really as they all share several things (hence I said these folk are lazy - they can't even come up with a new idea.

so some of the things to look out for:

1 ) This is the worst/most destructive/most dangerous Virus yet discovered - preys on peoples fears. Oh really it's that bad - but it's not been on the news or in the papers etc.

It's a hook to get you - scare 'em and they'll panic and believe it and as they're panicking they won't be thinking straight

2 ) It was announced on CNN/BBC/SKY etc or Discovered by Microsoft/Norton/Mcafee. - this is to add credibility - well if the BBC/CNN have announced it it must be true - yes well they haven't though have they. Again the names of Norton/Mcafee being leading lights (well actually there are way, way, way better anti virus providers out there but that's for another thread and who's heard of NOD32 or Steganos anyway ?) in the anti virus world adds gravitas and credibility so throw those names in and people are going to believe you .

Sadly many will but to the more experienced hoax spotter it's a flashing light to show it's a hoax - thanks for putting it in there

3 ) It will wipe your hard drive/make your computer completely useless - again back to point 1 here scare tactics to make you panic and think ..Ooohhh what if it's genuine it's going to ruin my PC - no it's not it's just lies.

4 ) Send this warning on to all your friends - this is a) The pay off b) appealing to your sense of decency

a) Their pay off is to have thousands of people forwarding this around the world and wasting bandwidth - and as more and more people send this the wasted bandwidth and wasted time keeps multiplying and multiplying.

b) they prey on peoples sense of decency - gosh if it's that bad I must warn ALL my friends and relatives - and BINGO they have the result they wanted.


so if you have two or more of the above factors (most such emails are likely to have all four - they are all very formulaic ) then it's ALMOST GUARANTEED to be a hoax.

Easy to check - lets say they are calling the virus the "a card for you" virus just go to google and type in :

"a card for you" +virus +hoax

type it EXACTLY as above including the " " and the spaces exactly where they are and the +'s exactly where they are - do it now as a test and see what you get.

There are also sites that list these hoaxes - virus vendor sites tend to list them like the afore mentioned Norton , there's also a site I think it's called snopes or something like that that lists hoaxes - but the google thing works too.

So if you get any more of these in the future do the above and reply to the sender that it's a hoax and they shouldn't send it to anyone else.

btw if anyone wants to copy this and send to friends/family to help them spot hoaxes please do so - the more folk know how to spot a probable hoax and then double check the less time and bandwidth will be wasted by these folk with nothing better to do.

Hope that is of some help to some of you :beer:

mascherano

ironic that somebody would quote CNN to give their claim credibility. If I hear anything on CNN i automatically know its untrue

Marcuk

i work in a call centre fixing comps and an issue like this has not come up as far as i am aware and i must take 50 calls a day.

judderman62

Marcuk wrote: »

i work in a call centre fixing comps and an issue like this has not come up as far as i am aware and i must take 50 calls a day.

It has already been confirmed as a hoax earlier in the thread

superscaper

judderman62 wrote: »

It has already been confirmed as a hoax earlier in the thread

Marcuk's advice has been dubious at best (eg advising complete OS reinstall because of suspected virus and advising someone their wireless problems are because they need a "vista compatible" router!!) so wouldn't worry about it.

superscaper

As far as these hoaxes go, it's got nothing to do with how computer savvy you are. You just need common sense. It's quite obvious when something is a chain letter which by definition you know where to file (the bin). A chain letter makes it self obvious no matter what the subject matter is. You don't need to be a GP to see that a letter claiming that the royal mail is donating money, for every copy/letter you forward on, to a child dying of cancer deserves binning and isn't real. (I actually got one of these letters once from a relative once quite a few years ago, I just binned it).

Any kind of genuine information or warning will NOT come in the form of someone sending you an email.

bat999

Last year, at the place that I work, the foreman came round giving us all a printout of that supposed CNN virus warning.
Someone in HR must have received the email and gone into panic mode I think.
That was a lot of wasted A4 paper.
:rolleyes:

Blackjack_Davy

Wiping sector zero won't destroy your hard drive in anycase. It contains the Master Boot Record. Your operating system wouldn't boot thats all. The data is still present on the drive. It's straightforward to restore the MBR.