START OF EMAIL
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Subject: VIRUS WITH NO CURE

PLEASE, SEND THIS INFORMATION TO EVERY
PERSON IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.
IF YOU RECEIVE AN E-MAIL THAT READS
"UPGRADE INTERNET2" DO NOT
OPEN IT, AS IT CONTAINS AN EXECUTABLE
NAMED  "PERRIN.EXE." IT WILL ERASE
ALL THE DATA IN YOUR HARD DRIVE AND IT WILL
STAY  IN  MEMORY.

EVERY TIME THAT YOU UPLOAD ANY DATA, IT
WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY
ERASED AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE YOUR COMPUTER
AGAIN. THIS INFORMATION WAS
PUBLISHED ON THE CNN WEB  SITE.
THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS VIRUS. TO
THIS DATE, THERE IS NO KNOWN
ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM FOR THIS PARTICULAR VIRUS

PLEASE, FORWARD THIS INFORMATION TO
YOUR FRIENDS, SO THAT THEY WILL BE ON THE ALERT.
ALSO CHECK THE LIST BELOW, SENT BY IBM,
WITH THE NAMES OF SOME E-MAILS THAT, IF RECEIVED, SHOULD NOT
BE OPENED AND MUST BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY, BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN
ATTACHED VIRUSES. THIS WAY YOUR COMPUTER WILL BE SAFE.

THE TITLES ARE:
1) buddylst.exe
2) calcu18r.exe
3) deathpr.exe
4) einstein.exe
5) happ.exe
6) girls.exe
7) happy99.exe
8) japanese.exe
9) keypress.exe
10) kitty.exe
11) monday.exe
12) teletubb.exe
13) The Phantom Menace
14) prettypark.exe
15) UP-GRADE INTERNET2
16) perrin.exe
17) I love You
18) CELCOM Screen Saver or CELSAVER.EXE
19) Win a Holiday (e-mail)
20) JOIN THE CREW O PENPALS
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END OF EMAIL

This is a hoax - do not pass it on to anyone - simply delete it.

You can view more info about this hoax in Symantec's (Norton AntiVirus) Virus Hoax Database (click the link below or copy and paste it into your browser):

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/upgrade.internet.2.hoax.html

The first clue that this is a hoax is that CNN and IBM do not do any virus research nor do they post virus alerts.  These are just big names that people can recognize so as to add an air of legitamacy to the hoax.

The second clue is the phrase "PLEASE, SEND THIS INFORMATION TO EVERY PERSON IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK."  This is a warning flag from any email - NEVER send something to all of your friends UNLESS you are EXACTLY sure what you are sending.  Even when you become very ill, the doctor doesn't tell you to tell everyone you know about it.

Third, its physically inpossible for some program to erase all the data from your hard drive and store it in memory (your hard drive IS where your data is kept in memory).  Read that email again slowly and think about what it says...

Fourth, if you upload data, you are sending it FROM data stored on YOUR computer.  It would be impossible to send something that was already erased and then erase it again after you send what didn't exist, now wouldn't it?  Once again, read it slowly and think...just a bunch of technical sounding gibberish...A computer that has had its hard drive erased will not start up when you turn it on.

This so called virus alert is just simply meant to waste time and space on email servers and to overload them with trash as well as create lists of email addresses which spammers (junk mailers) can get their hands on (This one alone had 33 email addresses attached to it) so that they can send you some more junk mail or sell your email address off to another spam company.

When you receive something like this, its usually a hoax or a scam.  Double check ANY warning you get from ANYONE.  If it is a legit warning, it will come from a legit source with links in it for you to verify the info (as you see at the end of this page).  If it is a true warning it will also come with sources to back that claim up.  If you cannot verify the info - then do not send it on.  There are links on the dejanet.com page which will let you verify many of these emails and you can also search out many good web pages on the Internet that will let you verify these things.

Basically there is a good rule of thumb here - if you were going to call each and every one of your friends or stop at each of their houses to warn them about something you heard, wouldn't you be sure that the info you were about to tell them was true before you wasted your time and gas?

Lastly, make sure you ARE running a good antivirus program (such as Norton Antivirus) and that you keep it updated every week.  If you do this, you won't have to rely on watching for viruses so much yourself, becuase the antivirus program will do most of the watching and alerting for you.  So take a moment right now and verify that your virus definitions are up to date and if you don't have one, take a moment to go and buy one.  You will be glad you did...

You may also visit the following links for more detailed info on this hoax:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/upgrade.internet.2.hoax.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/perrin.html

http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/library/blen0098.htm

http://w3.gwis.com/~jrich92/upgrade.htm