Virus: Invitation (aka Olympic Torch, Merry Christmas, or Black in the White House)
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.
[Collected via e-mail, December 2009]
URGENT!!! BLACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE
DO NOT OPEN
PLEASE CIRCULATE to your friends, family and contacts.
In the coming days, Do not open any message With an attachment called: Black in the White House, Regardless of who sent you ... It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disk C of your computer.
This virus comes from a known person who you had in your list Directions. That's why you should send this message to all your Contacts. It is better to receive this email 25 times to receive the virus and Open.
If you receive a message called: black in the white house, even sent by a friend, do not open and shut down your machine immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN. A new virus has been discovered recently it has been classified by Microsoft as the virus most Destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon by Mcfee and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the hard disk, where information vital function is stored.
[Collected via e-mail, January 2010
Emails with pictures of Gordon Brown actually smiling are being sent and
the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you
will not be able to fix it!
If you get an email along the lines of Gordon Brown smiling or Gordon
Brown even "looking happy" don't open the attachment.
This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but
mainly in England , Wales and Scotland
Be considerate & send this warning to who ever you know.
Origins: The classics never go away, it seems, so just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics someone 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"). In 2009 it was sent around again, that time as a warning about "Black in the White House."
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: 17 December 2009
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/invitation.asp
