Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list

DonaldG · 10-23-2009, 03:37 AM

How often have you received an email purporting to contain some form of vital information that is of great importance to everyone? They contain imperatives that make you feel like a criminal if you don't comply...

It may contain a warning about a new virus in an attachment ... Or it may be a 'good luck' message saying that your luck will be bad if you do not forward it etc....

I get this sort of email several times a week. Without exception, I ignore and dump them. Why?

They are a form of 'Multi Mailer' virus. The only difference between a MM Virus and this type is that a MM virus is a self replicating one that automatically emails itself to everyone on your address book. This one is a manual replication and distribution one. I relies on you to do the dastardly deed!

Consider the consequences of sending it out to everyone in your mail list:

I have over 514 names & addresses in my address book. That may be exceptional so let us use a nice easy number of say 50 addresses as an average & every one complies. The numbers become staggering...

Let us assume the average response time for each iteration is 24 hours

1 - Monday: a person sends it to 50 people.
2 - Tuesday: they each send it to another 50 people (50 x 50 = 2500)
3 - Wednesday: 2500 x 50 = 125,000 emails
4 - Thursday: 125,000 x 50 = 6,250,000 emails
5 - Friday: 6,250,000 x 50 = 31,2500,000 mails
6 - Saturday: 31,2500,000 x 50 = 15,625,000,000 emails

...And that is why I implore you to ignore the email and just bin it. Don't contribute to clogging up Internet with more worthless stuff that is the major cause of the slowness of the 'net!

(As a point of interest, the world population is only approximately 6,792,292,216)

**5NIPER_WOLF** · 10-23-2009, 10:03 AM

I always assumed very specific things such as virus outbreaks on popular websites type emails that are usually claimed by Norton or some other popular company, are legitamate. I never do forward any chain mail I recieve but I do sometimes look at it.

It's scary to know how fast this stuff can spread. The scarier thing is that there are so many people who forward this stuff (most notable: everyone's mother, mine included, they seem to feel obliged to send the stuff)

**jcgriff2** · 10-24-2009, 12:46 PM

They used to be delivered to your house by the United States Postal Service on horseback.

**Done_Fishin** · 10-24-2009, 02:49 PM

I agree wholeheartedly with Don ..

Firstly .. if there is a major alert via some AV software house it won't come around looking like the message that one receives,

Secondly, these messages look more or less the same .. once you have seen one you have seen them all ..

Thirdly ... Most AV sites have somewhere that you can go and check to see if it's a hoax ..

Fourthly .. there is always SNOPES .. Google Snopes and the basic info you are seeing about the virus .. you'll get a good indication as to whether it's a hoax or not!!

last but not least, once you have verified the hoax you could copy/paste the info and send it ""REPLY TO ALL"" from whence it came, whilst advising same that they can or should check details before sending out said "hoax info" to everyone .. make sure you do it diplomatically if you value your friendship with the perpetrator

DonaldG · 10-25-2009, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Done_Fishin

last but not least, once you have verified the hoax you could copy/paste the info and send it "" REPLY TO ALL"" from whence it came, whilst advising same that they can or should check details before sending out said "hoax info" to everyone .. make sure you do it diplomatically if you value your friendship with the perpetrator

I have often wanted to do that, but thinking on it, it is doing the same thing as replicating and perpetuating the thing but with a different message content.

In my eyes, the best thing is to bin it and hope that it will die a natural death.

**Done_Fishin** · 10-25-2009, 03:51 AM

I have only done it once or twice .. mainly when someone has irritated me with more than one of these messages! You have to remember that, by sending a copy to everyone that has received the message, the sender gets a lot of egg on his face. They'll probably never talk to you again either

TJ Belfiore · 10-27-2009, 03:40 AM

I wish I got this thread at least a tiny bit - - - What are you talking about?

**koala** · 10-27-2009, 09:06 AM

TJ, it's simple. If you get an unsolicited email that appears to contain important information and tells you to forward it to your friends, delete it and don't reply to the sender.

**Done_Fishin** · 10-27-2009, 12:09 PM

Snopes is a great place to educate yourself about true/false hoaxes that are delivered by e-mail.

This is but one link that holds a template for messages of which content varies according to current trends.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

the general message that arrives is similar (on many occasions word for word and only with current scam headings changed) to this .. the same format is still running around today.

Quote:

Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'Invitation' OR ONE CALLED 'POSTCARD,' Regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens an Olympic Torch OR A POSTCARD IMAGE, 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. This is the reason why you need to 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' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it. 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.

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

BIG VIRUS COMING !!! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !!!

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!

I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!

Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, 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. This is the reason why you need to 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' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! 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.

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

Snopes lists all the names it could come in.

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.'

Additional information:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/Content/v_142621.htm W32/Zhelatin.gen!eml
(McAfee)
Last updated: 11 November 2008

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.

Sources:

Einstein, David. "Electronic Greeting Card Just a New Take on an Old Scam."
San Francisco Chronicle. 13 August 2007.

**sandman55** · 10-30-2009, 04:22 AM

When I get an email from a friend warning me of a virus that will burn my hard drive and such, I go to snopes and get the good info then I send the snopes link back to the friend as a form of education and ask the friend to forward it on to the person who sent it and ask for it to keep going back. It may be duplicating the clogging but I like to think it will help to educate them so that they will investigate before sending this rubbish out.

**5NIPER_WOLF** · 10-30-2009, 12:25 PM

Wow I've heard of Snoopes but I never thought it could be used to identify fake emails and such.

**sandman55** · 10-31-2009, 12:10 AM

It's Snopes with one O very handy

http://www.snopes.com/

**5NIPER_WOLF** · 10-31-2009, 12:54 AM

very interesting site

10-23-2009, 03:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
DonaldG Manager Home Support, Assistant Manager Articles Team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Somerset, UK Posts: 10,164 OS: XPsp2 Laptop & Vista Ultimate Desktop My System Blog Entries: 1	Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list How often have you received an email purporting to contain some form of vital information that is of great importance to everyone? They contain imperatives that make you feel like a criminal if you don't comply... It may contain a warning about a new virus in an attachment ... Or it may be a 'good luck' message saying that your luck will be bad if you do not forward it etc.... I get this sort of email several times a week. Without exception, I ignore and dump them. Why? They are a form of 'Multi Mailer' virus. The only difference between a MM Virus and this type is that a MM virus is a self replicating one that automatically emails itself to everyone on your address book. This one is a manual replication and distribution one. I relies on you to do the dastardly deed! Consider the consequences of sending it out to everyone in your mail list: I have over 514 names & addresses in my address book. That may be exceptional so let us use a nice easy number of say 50 addresses as an average & every one complies. The numbers become staggering... Let us assume the average response time for each iteration is 24 hours 1 - Monday: a person sends it to 50 people. 2 - Tuesday: they each send it to another 50 people (50 x 50 = 2500) 3 - Wednesday: 2500 x 50 = 125,000 emails 4 - Thursday: 125,000 x 50 = 6,250,000 emails 5 - Friday: 6,250,000 x 50 = 31,2500,000 mails 6 - Saturday: 31,2500,000 x 50 = 15,625,000,000 emails ...And that is why I implore you to ignore the email and just bin it. Don't contribute to clogging up Internet with more worthless stuff that is the major cause of the slowness of the 'net! (As a point of interest, the world population is only approximately 6,792,292,216) __________________ . Lest we forget... "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." Submit New Articles Here TSF's Photographer's Corner .

10-23-2009, 10:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
5NIPER_WOLF Senior Tech, Games Team Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Toronto Canada Posts: 3,252 OS: Windows VISTA Home Premium 64-Bit/Fedora 11/Mandriva/WinXP SP3 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list I always assumed very specific things such as virus outbreaks on popular websites type emails that are usually claimed by Norton or some other popular company, are legitamate. I never do forward any chain mail I recieve but I do sometimes look at it. It's scary to know how fast this stuff can spread. The scarier thing is that there are so many people who forward this stuff (most notable: everyone's mother, mine included, they seem to feel obliged to send the stuff) __________________ Apps - CCleaner FireBug Network Mapper WinDirStat Process Explorer SpeedFan Info - Very Important NVIDIA Drivers ATI Drivers PSU Info I do not give support with MSN/E-mail or Private Messages.

10-24-2009, 12:46 PM	#3 (permalink)
jcgriff2 Moderator, Microsoft Supp Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Great State of New Jersey - away from the gross corruption of the Riverside County, CA, SO office. SHAMEFUL ! Posts: 10,123 OS: Windows 7, Vista Ultimate My System	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list They used to be delivered to your house by the United States Postal Service on horseback. __________________ . . . . . . . . BSOD Posting Instructions B Expecting a reply and waiting > 36 hours ? Send a PM to me containing a link to your thread Glad to be home in the Great State of New Jersey ! ! Last edited by jcgriff2; 10-24-2009 at 12:47 PM.

10-24-2009, 02:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 7,521 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list I agree wholeheartedly with Don .. Firstly .. if there is a major alert via some AV software house it won't come around looking like the message that one receives, Secondly, these messages look more or less the same .. once you have seen one you have seen them all .. Thirdly ... Most AV sites have somewhere that you can go and check to see if it's a hoax .. Fourthly .. there is always SNOPES .. Google Snopes and the basic info you are seeing about the virus .. you'll get a good indication as to whether it's a hoax or not!! last but not least, once you have verified the hoax you could copy/paste the info and send it ""REPLY TO ALL"" from whence it came, whilst advising same that they can or should check details before sending out said "hoax info" to everyone .. make sure you do it diplomatically if you value your friendship with the perpetrator __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F I DON'T PLAY GAMES How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner Last edited by Done_Fishin; 10-24-2009 at 02:51 PM. Reason: typos

10-25-2009, 03:51 AM	#6 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 7,521 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list I have only done it once or twice .. mainly when someone has irritated me with more than one of these messages! You have to remember that, by sending a copy to everyone that has received the message, the sender gets a lot of egg on his face. They'll probably never talk to you again either __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F I DON'T PLAY GAMES How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner

10-27-2009, 03:40 AM	#7 (permalink)
TJ Belfiore title here Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: 530 Posts: 3,517 OS: 7 x64, XP x32 Blog Entries: 1	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list I wish I got this thread at least a tiny bit - - - What are you talking about? __________________

10-27-2009, 09:06 AM	#8 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 12,366 OS: XP/7/Ubuntu My System	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list TJ, it's simple. If you get an unsolicited email that appears to contain important information and tells you to forward it to your friends, delete it and don't reply to the sender. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

10-30-2009, 04:22 AM	#10 (permalink)
sandman55 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 5,528 OS: WinXP Pro SP3	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list When I get an email from a friend warning me of a virus that will burn my hard drive and such, I go to snopes and get the good info then I send the snopes link back to the friend as a form of education and ask the friend to forward it on to the person who sent it and ask for it to keep going back. It may be duplicating the clogging but I like to think it will help to educate them so that they will investigate before sending this rubbish out. __________________ Charlotte at the beach

10-30-2009, 12:25 PM	#11 (permalink)
5NIPER_WOLF Senior Tech, Games Team Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Toronto Canada Posts: 3,252 OS: Windows VISTA Home Premium 64-Bit/Fedora 11/Mandriva/WinXP SP3 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list Wow I've heard of Snoopes but I never thought it could be used to identify fake emails and such. __________________ Apps - CCleaner FireBug Network Mapper WinDirStat Process Explorer SpeedFan Info - Very Important NVIDIA Drivers ATI Drivers PSU Info I do not give support with MSN/E-mail or Private Messages.

10-31-2009, 12:10 AM	#12 (permalink)
sandman55 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 5,528 OS: WinXP Pro SP3	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list It's Snopes with one O very handy http://www.snopes.com/ __________________ Charlotte at the beach

10-31-2009, 12:54 AM	#13 (permalink)
5NIPER_WOLF Senior Tech, Games Team Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Toronto Canada Posts: 3,252 OS: Windows VISTA Home Premium 64-Bit/Fedora 11/Mandriva/WinXP SP3 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Please (don't) forward this to everyone in your mailing list very interesting site __________________ Apps - CCleaner FireBug Network Mapper WinDirStat Process Explorer SpeedFan Info - Very Important NVIDIA Drivers ATI Drivers PSU Info I do not give support with MSN/E-mail or Private Messages.