Description
This is a hoax email virus, and as such poses no danger.
The text portion of the email is as follows
Hello, my name is Matthew Thomas and I am a computer analyst at GEC. I
have a freind who works at IBM and this morning he told me about a new virus
that has been discovered. This is very damaging and it is carried over the
e-mailing systems. It has the ability to completley format your hard drive,
however it takes a few days to fully do this. It is vital that you install this
program into your computer first. I have already installed it so the virus
cannot get to your computer through mine. YOU MUST double click on this after
detatching it BEFORE you send this program to anybody else so as to install the
program and protect your computer for the future. I would be grateful if you
could forward this to as many people as you can.
This has much in common with other hoax email viruses. For example, it
mentions the names of big computer companies, has implausible technical
details, requests that the email be sent to as many others as possible, and
contains many spelling mistakes.
Attached to the email is a file called De_bug.exe. When detached
and run, this will display a dialog box containing a question to which the user
can only answer "Yes". The program does not exhibit any harmful
side-effects.
The email was first reported in early March 1998, although the number of
reports saw a dramatic increase in May 1998.