Though I know this is off topic for this forum, the below message just circulated through my companies email system. ================================================== Someone is sending out a very cute screensaver of the Budweiser frogs. If you download it, you will lose everything! Your hard drive will crash and someone from the Internet will get your screen name and password! DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! It only went into circulation yesterday. Please distribute this message. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people are aware of it. This information was announced yesterday morning from Microsoft. Please share it with everyone that might access the Internet. Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book so that this may be stopped. AOL has said that this is a very dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this time.

This is a hoax. When you say this circulated through your company email system, I'm hoping this doesn't mean it came from the MIS department. One would hope they know how to check this nonsense out before becoming a party to spreading it further. -------------------------------- Aliases: The Bud Frogs Description BUDSAVER.EXE is not a virus. It is a hoax. The "virus" does not exist. There is currently no virus that has the characteristics ascribed to BUDSAVER.EXE. It is a sham, meant only to panic new or inexperienced computer users.

Naw, one of the programmers recieved it in email, and passed it on. That is why I say "possible", since the source of the information was unverified. :)

That hoax has been running for about 5 years now, but I still think it's good to pass info on, sometimes getting a heads-up can save your but..er..bacon. Thanks Mehndi! Still working on her, will have some stuffage for you soon. Marque

heyas; best bet: when you get the alert, verify it, THEN pass it on. (only if it isn't a hoax, of course!) http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ http://www.ciac.org/ (bookmark 'em. oh, and forward 'em to your mis department and yer programmers and whoever! :) )

Good advice and thanks for posting the referenced URL's. While I previously lifted the earlier text from Symantec's site I neglected to post the reference. As they state: "Please ignore any messages regarding these supposed "viruses" and do not pass on any messages about them. Passing on messages about these hoaxes only serves to further propagate them." To pass them along blindly is exactly what the bozo's that create the hoaxes are hoping will happen. Also more people should just use a little common sense. If statements are being attributed to Microsoft and AOL "officials" - you probably aren't going to hear about it for the first time from Suzie in the next cubicle or your Aunt Jenney, days after the 'event'.

I read that Microsoft never issues virus alerts and when someone claims they have it's a sure sign of a hoax. Mike

One thing to look for is an attachment with a .vbs extension. NEVER open anything with a .vbs extension. Our IS unit has issued numerous warnings about that. We've had a rash of viruses in our office the last couple of weeks and it's shut down the entire computer system of Multnomah County offices in Oregon (they got to us through the State system). We're finally back up and running, but there are still idiots who keep opening these files when they receive them, and recontaminating the system, even after they've been told not to. So, if you see anything with an attachment ending in .vbs, delete it immediately. Melanie

Use Eudora Mail. It stopped the Kak Worm dead in it's tracks just this past week, after it was tranmsferred to my inbox from a relative who uses Outlook.

Our office is on Outlook. It's all they let us use. We don't have Eudora on our system at work. We're stuck with the Microsoft stuff (I hate Word and wish I had my WordPerfect back, darn it!). So, unfortunately, we don't have a choice. Melanie

Slowly but surely I am using less and less Microsu*k stuff. :) Why anybody insists on using Outlook is beyond me, and ESPECIALLY corporations! I mean, it's BECAUSE of that that all the virus peddlers use Outlook! Oh well...maybe y'all ought to issue a policy that anyone opening an attachment with .vbs will be immediately fired! Cheers, Mike