Big Virus Coming! Please Read and Forward!
I had two people contact me today saying they had received an email warning them of the “Postcard” virus.
Naturally, the email tells them this has already been checked out via snopes.com and even includes the URL to get there and check it out for themselves. Naturally, no one does, but at least these two individuals contacted me before looking like an idiot and passing it on.
The email indicates that some original writer even checked with the Norton Antivirus people (probably called the CEO, don’t you suppose?) and they are “gearing up” for this one.
Further, to really move you to take action, the email warns you that this Postcard virus will “burn your whole hard disc” and the CNN classified it as the worst virus ever.
Well, I went to snopes.com and sent this paragraph from the end of the snopes page referenced to these people:
From Snopes.com:
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn’t a “BIG VIRUS COMING” (it’s already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not “burn the whole hard disc” of your computer, CNN didn’t classify it as the “worst virus” ever, and it doesn’t arrive in messages bearing a subject line of ‘Invitation.’
Bottom line: this is old news, won’t burn your entire drive, it’s not the worst virus ever in anybody’s book and you probably don’t need to read on online postcard from anyone in the first place.
When someone sends you an email like this, DON’T FORWARD IT; at least not without checking it out (don’t follow any links provided, that could be a trap) go to snopes.com or truthorfiction.com and do a simple search. Chances are it will be easy to find - especially if it’s at all valid. And if you do forward it, at least use BCC (blind carbon copy) so you don’t look like an idiot even if it is a valid threat.
You can also expect that the people who received these out of date and inaccurate emails will be less likely to open ANY email from the people who sent them junk like that in the first place.
Take a look at my Email Etiquette eBook to get your emails read and avoid looking foolish.
