Hello,
The warning I got had nothing to do with olympic torches but with postcards and
invitations. I actually went to the snopes site and it is indeed real. Jay


On Mon Feb 11 13:11 , John Mayer sent:

>
>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:
>
>
>
> 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 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:
>
> 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
>Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson This
material may not be reproduced without permission. 
>
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