The joke was on me...

[Digital Lungfish]

Unfortunately I was unable to respond to the thread before it was closed, so I wanted to take a moment to post an apology to those that read my post.

A friend (who I thought I could trust) called me up to warn me about those viruses. I had no idea that he was playing a joke on me, so I wanted to pass this information on to everyone here. Well, it's obvious now that these viruses were in fact hoaxes and the joke is on me. So my friend is now on my sh*t list and he's going to be for quite some time.

Since I'm not known for doing stupid stunts like this, when I read all your replies I felt like crap because I wasted everyone's time. Not only that, but now what little credibility I have here on the forum has been negatively affected.

In any case, to everyone here on the forum, I do apologize.

- DL

[feldon34]

I don't hold you accountable. Anyway, I've deleted the other post.

[asprague]

Morgan,

Why did you delete the other set of posts?

Michael, the moderator, correctly pointed out that there was a lot of good information in those posts on how to check if a virus/worm is real or a hoax. And I, in my post, went to a lot of effort to include the links necessary to make it easy for everyone to know how to make that determination.

Michael felt that merely locking this topic was sufficient. No one was being mean or critical. What DL experienced has been experienced by many. He was certainly not the first to be taken in and, sadly, will not be the last. No one was holding him accountable. Others who come to this forum could have learned from what happened to him and perhaps not be duped. How does anyone benefit from what you did?

Will you please undelete "the other post"?

Thank you,

Arnold

[feldon34]

I have no way of undeleting it. I'm sorry that I deleted your post.

I did state that I had every intention of deleting the whole topic just as soon as I had confirmation from Steven that what he got was a hoax (As we pretty much assumed it was).

If you receive an e-mail announcing a virus, check it out at one of these locations (hope this list has at least some of the sites Arnold mentioned):

<font size=+1>Symantec Virus Hoax list
McAfee Virus Hoax list
Urban Legends recent Real Viruses + Hoaxes list
VMyths Virus Hoax List
VMyths How to Spot a Virus Hoax
</font>

<font size=+1 color=DDDD00>Following message should not imply that you shouldn't run a virus checker periodically, especially if you are exposed to data and discs from a variety of sources, some of which might be unsafe. I only describe my own experience and my own situation. Your mileage may vary!</font>

I delete all the virus warnings and hoaxes as they come thru my e-mail. I almost consider it spam. I haven't kept a virus checker on my computer in the 16 years I have been using computers, from the Macintosh days to the PC days. Right now, I have no virus checker installed whatsoever. I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express, and I am always very wary about zip files and never open executables sent to me by e-mail.

Occasionally, I will wonder why my system is running slow and download an up-to-date virus checker to see what the problem is, but the result is always the same. No infections whatsoever. It's typically a configuration issue or a reboot is required (much less often with win2k)

Indeed, prevention and using no-compromise software is the best way to stay virus free.