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Home --> Computers --> Virus Hoaxes & Realities --> Invitation/Olympic Torch Virus

Invitation/Olympic Torch Virus

Virus:   Invitation (aka Olympic Torch, aka Merry Christmas)

Status:   Hoax.

Examples:

[Collected via e-mail, 2006]

WARNING

You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it. It is a virus
that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US
 

[Collected via e-mail, November 2007]

VIRUS ALERT!!

You should be alert during the next days:

Do not open any message with an attached file called "Merry Christmas" regardless of who sent it, It is a virus that opens as an Open Log Fire and will burn the whole hard disc in your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called "Merry Christmas", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept

Origins:   The classics never go away, it seems, so just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics someone dusted off an old virus warning hoax (most commonly seen in its incarnation as the "[Virtual] Card for You" hoax) and reintroduced it as an "Olympic Torch" virus warning (also known as the "Invitation virus").

The bottom line is that this same basic hoax has been circulating in various languages since at least 2000, with occasional changes along the way. No such (incurable) virus exists, has been identified by McAfee, or was reported on by CNN.

The 2007 "Merry Christmas" variant of the Invitation/Olympic Torch hoax should not be confused with the (real) Zafi.D worm from 2004, which did spread via attachments to messages bearing subject lines of "Merry Christmas" but is now rare and easily caught and eliminated by most anti-virus software products.

Additional information:
W32/MyWife.d@MM!M24 A Virtual Card for You Hoax
(McAfee)
Last updated:   27 November 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/invitation.asp

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