[Esbenovich]

hi

i've just recieved a mail from one of my friens, in it he warned me about a virus wich exploits
microsoft power point with a virus that erases the harddrive. the mail is in danish (since i live in denmark) but i've tried to translate it..

ADVARSEL TIL ALLE DU KENDER!!!
Hvis du får en mail fra Powerpoint præsentation 'Welcome to the
matrixpps..' så må du ABSOLUTT IKKE ÅBNE den!!! Der vises et billede i
ca. 10 sek. og siden kommer en tekst 'You?re harddrive is over' og så
er alt for sent; alle adresser og alt som du ellers har gemt, makuleres bort.
Det er et helt nyt virus som er programmeret af en fransk pirat som
kalder sig Nwin2.
KOPIER DETTE TIL ALLE DINE VENNER! DET ER ENORMT VIGTIGT!!!
Og send dette til ALLE dine kontakter!


WARNING FOR ALL YOU KNOW!!!
If you get an email from powerpoint presentation 'welcome to the maxtrix pps.' you may ABSOLUTELY NOT OPEN IT!!! It shows a picture in about 10 secs and then a text comes saying 'you?re harddrive is over' and then everything is too late; all adresses and everything youve saved is erased. it's a completely new virus programmed by a french pirate calling himself Nwin2
COPY THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS! IT'S EXSTREMLY IMPORTANT!!!
And send this to ALL your contacts!

Now, i dont believe this email. it doesnt seem very thrustworthy, I've googled 'powerpoint virus' and all i found were some older cases from 2006 about a trojan and that microsoft patced it all up.

so is this virus from Nwin2 something real or just a scam.

[cwwozniak]

McAfee called it a hoax in 2003:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/defau...virus_k=100395

[Esbenovich]

ok thanks

but don't you think it's a little wierd i get this mail now, when it whas already seen as a hoax in 2003? I would think that when that info first came out ppl stopped sending the email around

[cwwozniak]

I still get an occasional hoax virus message that has been going around for years. There still seem to be a large number of people that believe anything they read in an e-mail and forward such messages to everyone in their address book. It just takes one such person on each recipient list to keep a hoax alive.

FWiW, I use a two step approach when receiving such messages. I first use a site like www.snopes.com or http://www.symantec.com/norton/secur...orer/index.jsp to see if the story is a hoax. If it is a hoax, I reply to just the sender. The reply has a link to the specific page that confirms the hoax status. I also suggest that they check such sites before propagating any messages about viruses (or some story about a kid with a terminal illness trying to get in the Guinness book of records by getting the most get well cards) .

If they do not get the hint and send me another hoax message, I repeat step #1 but this time do a "Reply All". This stops most of the hoax virus messages from that person (not sure if they actually take the advice or just take me off the list of recipients for future messages ).

[Esbenovich]

..sounds fair
anyway thx for the help