A number of computer virus warnings have been circulating:

• Email entitled 'An Internet Flower For You' contains a destructive computer virus. See the warning here.
• Email entitled 'Let's Watch TV' contains a destructive computer virus. See the warning here.
• Email entitled 'Win a Holiday' contains a destructive computer virus. See the warning here.
• The 'A.I.D.S.' virus in an email will destroy your computer. See the warning here.
• Email entitled 'JOIN THE CREW' contains a destructive computer virus. See the warning here.
• Email entitled 'PENPAL GREETINGS' contains a destructive computer virus. See the warning here.
• A 'Budweiser Frogs' screen saver, 'buddylst.zip', will destroy your computer. See the warning here.
• The 'CELCOM/CELLSAVER.EXE' screen saver will destroy your computer. See the warning here.

'An Internet Flower For You' is debunked here and here.

'Let's Watch TV' is debunked here.

'Win a Holiday' is debunked here.

'A.I.D.S.' is debunked here and here.

'JOIN THE CREW' is debunked here and here.

'PENPAL GREETINGS' is debunked here and here.

'Budweiser Frogs screen saver' is debunked here and here.

'CELCOM/CELLSAVER.EXE' is debunked here and here.

These hoaxes are the grandchildren of the original computer virus hoax, the 'Good Times' virus. Born in 1994, the 'Good Times' virus was supposedly spread by email and would erase your hard drive if opened. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Hoaxsters haven't improved on the original.

Back in 1994 when 'Good Times' first appeared, computer experts could easily squash 'Good Times' hoaxes by noting that mail applications do not automatically execute the contents of emails and thus could not spread a virus. No longer, thanks to Microsoft's lust for 'integration'.

Microsoft makes several products that, due to poorly thought out features, poor computer security and dangerous default configuration, allow computer viruses to spread via email. And computer virus writers did not fail to exploit the weaknesses of Microsoft software and concocted email viruses, most prominently the 'Love Letter' and 'Melissa' viruses, that bedeviled millions of computers worldwide.

One thing to note, the Urban Legend Zeitgeist does not specialize in analysis of computer virus warnings. There are a number of sites that do, see the links below.

• General resources on computer virus hoaxes:
  • "Computer Virus Myths Home Page"
  • "CIAC Internet Hoaxes" from the US Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability
  • "Symantec Antivirus Research Center" from Symantec
  • "Virus Information Library" from McAfee.com

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