Thanks for trying to help your friends, Chi Chen, but no... it's not real. This is the same Olympic Torch hoax that's been circulating since the LAST summer olympics; I guess it's appropriate once again with another Olympics on the way. One clue that this is hoax is the following excerpt:
On Feb 11, 2008, at 6:41 AM, Chi-Chen Cheng wrote:
This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
This is an effort by the hoaxsters to stir recipients to action; ALL hoax viruses are the worst ever. One way to check whether this has REALLY been vetted by Snopes is to go to Snopes and see; not click on a link in the same hoax letter. This link looks real, alright, but it directly contradicts what Snopes says if you go straight to Snopes home page and look for this virus.
If I'd taken this seriously I'd have missed an invitation to a Valentine's Day party. So even "harmless" hoaxes can do harm. Happily, I don't have to worry about viruses; I have a Mac.
Here's what Snopes REALLY says:



Invitation/Olympic Torch Virus Virus: Invitation (aka Olympic Torch, aka Merry Christmas) Status: Hoax. Examples:
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Origins: The classics never go away, it seems, so just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics someone has 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: |

Last updated: 27 November 2007 The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/invitation.asp Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson This material may not be reproduced without permission.
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