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Illegal Operation! Fatal Exception!
Error, Error Will Robinson!
Accent on Computers to the rescue! 203-625-7575.
May 2, 2008
The Hoax on You
Dear Readers,
I feel the need to alert you to a very serious situation. A new computer virus
has been uncovered that is circulating via e-mail. The subject of the e-mail is
usually something like “Read me” or “Terrific Joke.” The problem is that when
you read this e-mail, the virus secretly imbedded within it causes your computer
to immediately begin to melt. First, the plastic circuit boards begin to
dissolve leaving behind a viscous acidic solution that then causes your hard
drive and all the material stored on it to instantly vaporize. While all this is
happening, you hear a voice emanating from your computer speakers saying, “I’m
melting. I’m melting.”
This is not a joke and has been verified on Snopes and other web sites of this
ilk. I urge you to e-mail this important information to all your friends,
relatives, and colleagues.
All right, before you race off to your computer, tell me…did I convince you? I
sure hope not.
Let me ask you this: If a friend of yours forwarded an e-mail to you (that was
forwarded to him, that was forwarded to…) warning of impending computer doom or
instructing you to locate and delete a file on your computer in order to rid
yourself of some deadly virus, would you do it? Are you one of “those” people
who have already done it?
Trust me. What you should be deleting is any e-mail you receive that warns you
of the “latest virus” or some other form of impending doom. They’re nothing more
than chain-letter hoaxes. Don’t delete files from your computer just because
somebody said you should. In fact, simply ignore any warning like this unless it
is being issued to you by a qualified and knowledgeable computer professional.
Beware e-mail messages of this nature, and please, do not forward them to
anyone. Watch out for messages that use hyperbole to scare you: “This e-mail
virus will overwrite your boot sector and destroy everything on your computer in
an instant.” Ignore such messages that claim they come from big name companies
like Microsoft, Intel, or IBM. Scoff at messages that use exclamation points and
uppercase letters to scare you into action.
In my thirty years in the computer business, no such e-mail has ever spouted
anything remotely true. If you really want to forward anything to all of your
friends, send them this column. Then maybe with a little luck, we’ll rid
ourselves of this chain letter scourge once and for all.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
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