A.I.D.S

The A.I.D.S. hoax email virus is very similar to the Good Times hoax.

In one incarnation, the text reads as follows:

There is a virus out now being sent to people via email...it is called the A.I.D.S. VIRUS. It will destroy your memory, sound card and speakers, drive and it will infect your mouse or pointing device..as well as your keyboards making what you type not able to register on the screen. It self terminates only after it eats 5MB of hard drive space & will delete all programs.

It will come via E-mail called "OPEN: VERY COOL! :) ". DELETE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! immediately!! It will basically render your computer useless.

PASS IT ON QUICKLY & TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!! THANKS!!

There are real viruses and Trojan horses called AIDS, but this email does not describe any of them. In common with other hoax email viruses, it also claims to do things that are not possible, e.g. infecting a mouse.

Many virus hoaxes:

• falsely claim to describe an extremely dangerous virus
• use pseudo-technical language to make impressive-sounding (but impossible) claims
• falsely claim that the report was issued or confirmed by a well-known company
• ask you to forward it to all your friends and colleagues

As usual, you are urged not to pass on warnings of this kind, as the continued re-forwarding of these hoaxes simply wastes time and email bandwidth.

It is possible that you may receive a hoax via email with a file attached. Obviously, such file attachments should be treated with caution as they may be virus infected. Sophos recommends deleting virus hoax emails, whether they contain file attachments or not.

Sophos suggests a policy to help prevent hoaxes from spreading in your company.