Folks: This is a load of horseshit. In the interest of keeping mass
pass-it-along stuff like this to a minimum, please rely on official
notifications from your sysadmins at your site (who are usually on the
Dept. of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory list, or something
similar). 

See, it's like this--there is no such thing as an email virus which can
destroy your harddrive while you read it, and *then* email itself to
everybody in your address-book. Not possible.

The *actual* self-replicating virus is the warning message itself--it
gets forwarded around and around and around the world and keeps cropping
up, again and again. (notice this line from the message itself: "And
pass this message along to all of your friends and relatives and the
other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are on . .
..")

 Interesting model of computer-resident "life," actually. But not a
disk-destroying virus.

So please, no more friendly virus warnings on this list. Thanks.

Ross

James Hepler wrote:
> 
> Sorry about the many forwards on this, but there's important info, since
> we're on a list and all.  Rock on
> 
--
> This is a warning for all internet users - there is a dangerous virus
> propagating across the internet through an e-mail message entitled
> "PENPAL GREETINGS!".  DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL
> GREETINGS!"
> 
> This message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you are
> interested in a penpal, but by the time you read this letter, it is too
> late. The "trojan horse" virus will have already infected the boot sector
> of your hard drive, destroying all of the data present. Its is a
> self-replicating virus, and once the message is read, it will
> AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone who's e-mail address is present in
> YOUR mailbox!
> 
> This virus will DESTROY your hard drive, and holds the potential to
> DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your in-box, and who's
> mail is in their in-box and so on and so on. If this virus remains
> unchecked,  it has the potential to do a great deal of DAMAGE to computer
> networks worldwide!!!!
> 
> Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon as you
> see it! And pass this message along to all of your friends and relatives
> and the other readers of the newsgroups and mailing lists which you are
> on, so that they are not hurt by this dangerous virus!!!
> 
> We have had a  virus before... they sure mess up your computer -- Be
> Careful!
> Doreen / Sissy