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For your professional growth and enhancement, be sure to visit www.gerryreid.com

Gerry Reid's Virus Warnings and Information
About E-mail Hoaxes

(Also known as the "DUH" Page.)

Issues about SPAM.

"Please share this resource page with others." - Gerry Reid

Sites to Visit BEFORE Forwarding a Virus Warning or E-mail Chain Letter.

Contents of this page:

Real Viruses:

Hoaxes sent via E-mail.

Sites to Visit BEFORE Forwarding a Virus or Other Warning

If a real virus is on the attack check these useful sites:

I hope this information is informative, educational and helpful to you! If you hear of other sites that add more information, please let me know and I will add them to this list. We learn best by giving to others what we have learned ourselves.

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The Dr. H.N. Day Virus

The simple warning that originally accompanied this virus was not sufficient to steer me away from it. Therefore, I became its victim. After the fact, I personally researched it and completely rewrote and reissued the press release as it appears here. I take full responsibility for posting it on this Web page. If you become infected as a result of this posting, please let me know.

This virus is HORRIBLY EFFICIENT. Some may think it is a laughing matter. As for me, I simply smile at those who do not believe it. A special thank you goes to my friend Julie in Minnesota for first informing me of this virus.

======= FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ===========
There are reports of a very serious virus on the loose. It is the first computer virus known to infect humans as a direct result of reading their e-mail! This is not a joke!

TECHNICAL DATA:

THIS VIRUS IS EXTREMELY CONTAGIOUS. It is so powerful that even reading or saying its name causes involuntary muscle responses in humans and causes immediate 14U processor interrupts at address FE E2 FE ED (This address is the entry point to emoticon translation processing on DOS based machines, and/or spreadsheet calculations involving @NET_VALUE_TEENAGER functions on any platform.)

BE WARNED! This virus will momentarily DECREASE human information processing speed. However there is a noticeable INCREASE in the ability to have a successful handshake between dissimilar or previously incompatible  human devices. The result is an INCREASE in both short and long-term human-to-human data exchange rates as well as a significant improvement in information confidence and reliability levels.

METHOD OF INFECTION:

This virus is propagated through computer-to-computer contact, but remains dormant until contact is made with a human being as they read their e-mail. Once the human is infected, it is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid spreading the virus instantaneously to other humans, with no more than eye contact!

NOTE: Early studies indicate that dogs, babies, close friends and family are most vulnerable, but even strangers can become infected, many times while several feet away!

WARNING: BY READING FURTHER, YOU WILL BECOME INFECTED. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Dr. H.N. Day*, president of the Global Responses to Infectious Nuisances** organization, was asked to described this virus. Dr. Day's description has become this viruses most common name.

Dr. Day said, "This virus is a 'savage, multinational, internal lumination expression.'*** In short I would call it . . .

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. . . . . . A SMILE animated_rotating_smilie.gif (1020 bytes) !!!

 

OH, OH! TOO LATE!

I see it on your face already! It looks GREAT! - - - Now, take a break and go infect someone or two!

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*Have a Nice Day! **GRIN! ***SMILE!
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For further information, contact http://www.gerryreid.com/

WORK Virus.

NOTE: This virus warning is GENUINE. Ignoring this warning can cause irrecoverable losses of time, happiness and life itself!

There is a new virus going around, called "work." If you receive any sort of "work" at all, whether via email, internet or simply handed to you by a colleague ... DO NOT OPEN IT. This has been circulating around our building for months and those who have been tempted to open "work" or even look at "work" have found that their social life is deleted and their brain ceases to function properly.

If you do encounter "work" via email or are faced with any "work" at all, then to purge the virus, send an email to your boss with the words "I've had enough of your crap... I'm off to the pub." The "work" should automatically be forgotten by your brain.

If you receive "work" in paper-document form, simply lift the document and drag the "work" to your garbage can.

If you become infected with the "work" virus, the following "work-around" is suggested.

1. Put on your hat and coat.

2. Skip to the nearest bar with two friends.

3. Order three pints of beer (or rum punch).

4. After repeating this action 14 times, you will find that "work" will no longer be of any relevance to you.

Long term therapy includes sending this message to everyone in your address book. If you do NOT have anyone in your address book, then I'm afraid the "work" virus has already corrupted your life.

Now on to the more serious stuff . . .

E-mail Hoaxes in General

Have you ever received an e-mail message (usually forwarded several times) that warns you not to open a particular e-mail message? It usually tells of some horror that will occur simply by reading the message. [NOTE: The links below, while seemingly very powerful do no harm to your machine. They work in Netscape, but probably do not work in Billy Gates' I.E. (Ingesting Everyone :-) browser]:

"ERASES YOUR ENTIRE HARD DRIVE" or

"DISABLES YOUR DISKETTE DRIVE" or

"SENDS ALL YOUR FILES TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK" or

"BILL GATES WILL GIVE YOU A THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR FORWARDING THIS MESSAGE!" (Yeah, right!)

I was sucked into propagating a hoax like the one above, but only once!

I received it from a highly respected technical person who should have known better. It took me a day to recover from all the responses I got about this type of hoax.

However, one of the benefits of wading through all the responses was that most people were understanding and sympathetic to my having been "had." Thanks to some very neat cyber-friends, I was delighted to learn the truth about viruses, hoaxes and scams by visiting sites that deal with this kind of Internet misuse and abuse. This page was created is a result of my experiences. I hope it helps you avoid the embarrassment it caused me.

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Nine, Zero Pound

Seems like everyday I get another stupid e-mail that simply needs a little research. The very nature of this note smacks of a lie, since, if the note is true, the process is far to easy to use. Check these sites for a clearer understanding, but ABOVE ALL ELSE, GET SMARTER and do your own research before forwarding a note like this. It took me less than two minutes to find this:

David Spaulding - http://korova.com/virus/hoax980212.htm

Here is the original note sent to me by someone who simply "pushed the panic button" and forwarded the note to everyone they know without doing any research. [My comments in brackets]:

Subject: Just passing this on

[Pages of headers and e-mail addresses deleted here.]

I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine(9),zero(0), the pound sign (#), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused. [If there is anything at all to be learned here, it is to NEVER be so gullible as to simply do what an unidentified individual tells you to do. I suppose if someone told you to drop your pants, stand on you head, and give them you credit card number you would do that, too. DUH!]

Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number. [This is the lie (a least a definite twisted-truth) - see the site referenced above] I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons. I have also verified this information with UCB telecom, Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic and GTE. [I doubt it - can you imagine how long you would be on hold with those companies, let alone finally finding someone who really knows the answer?] Please beware. 

DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE. [Or, do not send cash in the mail, do not give out your credit card numbers, do not tell strangers your personal information - DUH! Isn't all of this obvious beyond belief?]

The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW. [Again, I doubt it. If this is true, I suspect GTE would not want the secret formula (90#) known by "everyone you know."] PLEASE pass this on to everyone YOU know. [If you are as gullible as the sender thinks you are.] If you have mailing lists and/or newsletters from organizations you are connected with, I encourage you to pass on this information to them, too. [Now the sender wants to prove to the world that you are not just stupid, you are REALLY STUPID!]

Please let your friends know. [With friends like this clogging up the Internet with mail and wasting everyone's time, I'd hate to meet the enemy!]

A couple minutes research found this intelligent and informative source:

David Spaulding - http://korova.com/virus/hoax980212.htm

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Jane Reno "Cult" Quote Hoax

I received the following which was quoted in an e-mail from well-meaning friend:

"A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools for their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has strong belief in the Second Amendment; and who distrusts big government. Any of these may qualify a person as a cultist but certainly more than one of these would cause us to look at this person as a threat and his family as being in a risk situation that qualified for government interference." 

Janet Reno, Attny. General, USA Interview on 60 Minutes June 26, 1994 

Do you qualify? Are you (as defined by the US Attorney General) a threat? This should disturb everyone in "The land of the free." Those with computer access should forward this to every other man, woman and child who can read." 

My reply was as follows and I offer it to the reader of this page for your edification:

I have some bad news and some good news regarding the Janet Reno quote you  forwarded to me.

1 of 3. The bad news is that in propagating of this HOAX you have unknowingly assisted (what I will call) "Hate mongers" who using the Internet to inflame people. What I sense is that these people have a strong evil-based force that wants people to hate each other. For what purpose, I do not now. I do know that having met you, you are not at all like those people. It is so easy for us to get caught in the frenzy of forwarding information without verifying its validity.

I took a few minutes to do some research, for I refuse to be taken in by hoaxes and hate-based e-mail. As I expected, THE MESSAGE ABOUT JANET RENO AND "WHAT IS A CULT" is a hoax, a blatant lie about Janet Reno - Now, don't get me wrong - I am not a Janet Reno fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe the world will never get on the track of peace, respect, tolerance, mercy and love if people do not check to see if such "extreme" information is factual.

2 of 3. The good news about receiving your e-mail is that I will be posting the information (below) on my web site in hopes of educating others.

3 of 3. I encourage you (and those before you) to be as diligent in passing this note back (up the chain), to the person who sent it to you (and all those on their CC list) as you were in sending the original note to me. Maybe together we can make a difference on many levels - hopefully, someday, back to the unethical "Hate Monger" who originated it. May God have mercy on his/her soul.

FYI: I have contacted John S. Hanson at Abilene Christian University and am awaiting his call back verifying or denying that he sent the original note you quoted.

Here is what I found on various sites regarding this hoax:

According to CBS, Janet Reno did not appear on 60 Minutes in 1994. More to the point, even if she had made such an appearance and even if she did hold this unlikely opinion, the Attorney General would not have dared to publicly utter such impolitic words, which essentially consign the majority of practicing Christians in the United States to the status of "cultists" and "threats" to the society.

Background

In spite of the fact that most of us have only recently encountered this hoax for the first time, it turns out to have a bit of history. A variant of the same text, including an overt reference to the 1993 Waco tragedy, was already circulating by fax and email in 1994. That version went as follows:

'A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools for their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the Second Amendment; and who distrusts big government. Any of these may qualify (a person as a cultist) but certainly more than one would cause us to strongly look at this person as a threat, and his family as being in a risk situation that qualified for government interference. Waco was one of those situations that qualified under our definition of people being at risk that necessitates government action to save them.' 

The controversial statement attracted enough attention at the time to spur Rep. James V. Hansen of Utah to query the Justice Dept. in regards to its authenticity. Hansen's letter elicited the following response, dated March 7, 1995, from the Department's Office of Legislative Affairs:

This responds to your January 23 letter inquiring about Attorney General Reno's alleged statement on the television program '60 Minutes' defining a "cultist."

The plain fact is that the quote is a hoax. The Attorney General has never been interviewed on '60 Minutes.' She has never discussed cults, or tried to define one. There is nothing in the counterfeit quote that guides government policy. 

The quote first appeared, to our knowledge, in the August 1993 'Paul Revere Newsletter' of the Christian Defense League in Flora, Illinois. The information came by telephone from a woman in Florida whose name was not noted. The newsletter subsequently ran a retraction. 

Two months later, the Reno quote was again branded a hoax by The New Gun Week, a publication of the Second Amendment Foundation. Executive Editor John P. Tartaro reported the correspondence between Rep. Hansen and the Justice Department, adding:

Given Reno's other public statements, her public record in Florida and in federal office, and her responsibility for both the good and the bad of the Justice Department, it is not hard to understand why people might believe the "cultist" definition statement attributed to her. However, if someone concerned about her philosophy, her statements, and her unwillingness to publicly put to rest public worries about the Waco and Weaver cases, and a host of other flawed operations by FBI and other government law enforcement agencies which she supervised, were to publicly use the attributed quote in a speech or article, they could quickly be discredited by their opposition. Such an event would tend to also discredit any other comments made at the same time or at a later date, no matter how factual. Once you are publicly made to appear a kook, that will be the remaining public perception.

- The New Gun Week, April 28, 1995

Well, the kooks in the present case, the same rabid pro-gun groups and far right zealots who find the Clinton "Body Count" email convincing are still at it. The phony Reno quote has remained on artificial life support courtesy of the Internet since 1994, circulating constantly by email among right wing groups and cropping up from time to time in Usenet articles and on Websites.

A 1997 variant posted by a Neo-Nazi organization alleges that Reno made the statement at a Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco luncheon. No date for the alleged speech was given. Currently, the quote can still be found displayed on Websites ranging from the wholly uncritical and conspiracy-oriented Pissed Off American Page [Please note: the author of the POA Page removed the Reno quote subsequent to the publishing of this article] to the slightly more cautious, conspiracy-oriented Coming Earth Changes millennial site.

he authors of such pages would do well to heed the closing words of John Tartaro:

It doesn't matter whether inaccurate information is intentionally or accidentally put in our paths, we have the obligation to know that something is accurate before we repeat it. And it doesn't matter whether the slander is directed at friends or enemies. Otherwise we are merely proving the accuracy of another quotation, this one from

Mark Twain:

"It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you."

Is anyone listening?

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Charity Scams and Other E-mail that Does Nothing But Bog Down the Net

What is it about some people that it would give them some kind of thrill or high to overload the internet with a "send it to everyone you know" serious-sounding, tear-jerking problem? One very certain answer is that it is a way to get their name and/or business page URL name in front of you either within the note itself or in the trailer (signature area).

  • FIRST, if you receive a note that some charity will receive money for each message you send on their behalf, CALL THE CHARITY and verify the claim. 100% Guarantee - - - It is a scam! It is a very sick person (who probably needs some charity themselves) who would misuse a charity's name and load the internet with millions of useless notes by continuing to forward these kinds of messages.

  • SECOND, isn't it obvious to the most casual observer that the following is no more that someone's naive way to generate a current and up-to-date mailing list of people who use e-mail in their businesses? Do you think they just might use this list or sell it to interested parties for advertising business products and services?

  • THIRD, there is even a follow-up e-mail to the first e-mail - VERY Clever!

Watch for this first note . . . [Call the charity and check it out before propagating the note!]

PLEASE HELP! My name is {sender's name} and my business is {subtle(?) advertisement, usually with some way to contact them via e-mail, web address or street address and phone} I received the following note and am forwarding it to you because I know you are the kind of person who would like to help:

{name of unidentifiable child or old person} has {terminal, horrible medical condition} and has little time to live. {Name} asked {named charity} to help them be remembered in a special way. {Name} wants to become listed in {some kind of "Book of World Records"} for the world's largest collection of business cards.

Please retype this letter on your business letterhead and send it to 20 or more other businesses, helping to make his/her wish come true. If nothing else, please forward this message to everyone on your e-mail list!

Time is running short! Please send business cards (and a copy of your letter to other businesses) to:

{name}
c/o {charity's name}
{official sounding address}

Thank you for being so kind.

-------- It isn't over yet! --------

Watch for the following "follow-up" on some messages - Very clever way to get one more opportunity for business name exposure!

My Dear Internet Friend,

My name is {another advertisement with hot-links, phone numbers, etc.} I recently sent you an e-mail message about {name} who is dying of {horrible disease}.

I contacted {charity} about the note I sent you. I am sorry to inform you that it is a very old chain letter. {name} {recovered/died} and {charity} asked me to contact everyone I sent the note to and ask that you stop forwarding this information. I am sorry for the intrusion(s).

{Tearfully/Joyfully},

{Sender}

{additional advertising information}

* * *I swear, the tenth time I get a note like the above, I'm going to use this scam just to get people to stop by THIS page! <Grin :- * * *

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How Gullible are You?

How about doing some simple research before forwarding a message like this?
[My editorial comments in red in brackets]

The Latest "Let's Create Some Panic Over Y2K" E-mail Hoax:

Check your computers to make sure the date is set correctly. One of our engineers found this bug by talking to a friend at Microsoft [Who is the moron, who is the liar? The originator of the message, the engineer or the friend? - as for me I'd rather not be associated with any of them.]

TEST:
Double click on "My Computer".
Double click on "Control Panel".
Double click on "Regional Settings" icon.
Click on the "Date" tab at the top of the page. [Here is where the real stupidity starts: Who is the jerk at Microsoft who designed that screen? Why doesn't this screen specifically state that the setting is a display setting only? A lot of good a Computer Science degree does if the student failed "Basic Human Communication 101."]

Where it says, "Short Date Sample" look and see if it shows a "two digit" year. Of course it does.
That's the default setting for Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT.

This date RIGHT HERE is the date that feeds application software [This is the lie. Hope this person sleeps well at night. - Oh well, God will ask the big questions in the end.] and WILL NOT roll over in the year 2000. It will roll over to 00. [This is the truth, of course. As Mr. Brain would say on the Jay Leno show, "IDIOT! Of course it won't roll to 2000! MORON! You just told it to display only a two digit field!"]

Click on the button across from "Short Date Style" and select the Option that shows, mm/dd/yyyy. (Be sure your selection has four Y's showing, not just two). Then click on "Apply" and then click on "OK" at the bottom.

Easy enough to fix. However, every single installation (yy) of Windows worldwide is defaulted to fail Y2K rollover.

How many people know about this? How many people know to change that? What will be the effect? Who knows! But this is another example of the pervasiveness and systematic nature of the problem. [. . . and the growing population of moron's who start these messages . . . and those who are so scared that they propagate these messages without doing any research. It took me under 30 seconds to connect to Microsoft and find that the message is a hoax.]

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How Stupid Will We Get Before We Get Smart?

Are people stupid, or do they just want to appear stupid?
[My editorial comments in red in brackets]

Subject: Have some fun-this is not a hoax. [Yeah, sure.]
      
       Hi. My name is Jeffrey Newieb. [a dyslexic "newbie?"] I am a  marketing analyst for M&Ms chocolate candies based in Hershey, Pennsylvania [Duh, Hershey's is based in Hershey - coincidence? - Mars, Inc. (M&Ms) is based in Hackettstown, NJ ]. As the year 2000 approaches, we want to be the candy of the millenium [SIC] [I get suspicious of anyone who mentions it and can't spell it.]. As you may already know, the roman numeral for Y2K is MM. We are asking you to pass on this e-mail to 5 friends. Our tracking device [big brother is watching? - man, where can I buy THAT code?] is calculating how many e-mails you send out. Everytime [SIC] it reaches 2000 people, you will receive a free case (100 individual 55 gram packs) of delicious M & M candies. That means the more people it reaches, the more candy you're going to get. Mmmmmm... yummy M & Ms for the year 2000!! Remember, nothing but bad luck will come your way if you do not share this [What's this? another marvelous piece of code that notifies Satan to attack?] with at least 5 people! [Gee, I'm sharing it with zillions of visitors - Gosh, will I be lucky - DUH!]

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Free Disney Trips - Good Grief, People! - Just do the Math!

Some people actually believe the following! 

[Brings to mind people who spend $2.00 on a bottle of Evian water - Spell it backwards to see what I mean.]

SUBJECT: Disney message & $5,000.00

If you read below you will see the note from Walt Disney Jr. & Management at Disney World. Basically if this messages reaches 13,000 people, everyone will receive $5,000.00 or a free, all expenses paid, trip to Disney World in anytime during the summer of 1999.

SUBJECT: See the note below - its worth it!!!!

Everyone is to resend to 15 individuals. Please read and forward to as many friends as possible...we've checked up on this and this is no joke of a chain letter or something if this reaches 13,000 people...duplicate entries don't count, though...So, please help & pass on... thank you, and here you go!!!

FROM: WALT DISNEY JR.

GREETING!

Hello Disney fans, And thank you for signing up for Bill Gates' Beta Email Tracking. My name is Walt Disney Jr. Here at Disney we are working with Microsoft which has just compiled an e-mail tracing program that tracks everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. It does this through an unique IP (Internet Protocol) address log book database.

We are experimenting with this and need your help. Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 13,000 people, 1,300 of the people on the list will receive $5,000, and the rest will receive a free trip for two to Disney World for one week during the summer of 1999at our expense. Enjoy.

Note: Duplicate entries will not be counted. You will be notified by email with further instructions once this email has reached 13,000 people.

Your friends,

Walt Disney Jr., Disney, Bill Gates, & The Microsoft Development Team.

Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

Editorial comment:

First, I find it amazing that Walt and Bill would use Hotmail.com for sending e-mail, but what the heck - It’s free!

Second, Let's do the math . . .

1,300 prizes awarded at $5,000 each = $6,500,000

11,700 trips for two for a week with Mickey (say $1000 for airfare, $1000 for park admission - hotel at $1000 - total prize value $3,000 per) = $35,100,000.

So Bill and Walt are spending $41,600,000 just to gather 13,000 e-mail addresses that are available for less than a penny a piece from list sellers? DUH! At $41M you could buy 4 BILLION addresses. Heck, for that kind of money I'd gladly change my career (and I'll bet a whole bunch of others would join the corporation I could form) and gather addresses for them!

By the way, who is Walt Disney, Jr.? If I recall right, the Disney empire is NOT under his control and is run by Michael Eisner.

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Bottom Line?___________________

Come on people!

GET INTELLIGENT! 
THINK IT OUT!

  • SAVE SOME TIME AND RESOURCES!

  • DO SOME RESEARCH (and common sense thinking) BEFORE FORWARDING ANYTHING!

Stop propagating ridiculous messages like those described on this page! All they do is bog down the Internet with useless traffic. 

. . . and in some cases, makes you think about the company who starts them.
. . . Hmmm, maybe some "not-so-subliminal" advertising going on here?
- - - Please continue reading <grin>

Call me today! Reserve your date! 
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Gerry Reid Speaking
4333 Essex Court
Suite 105
Flower Mound, TX 
75028-1769
214-316-1400
hi@gerryreid.com
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