A Rerun: The Old Hoaxes Combined

      Subject: Virus!!!!!

       Please read below!!!

       WARNING!!!!!! If you receive an e-mail titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO
       NOT open it! It will erase EVERYTHING on your hard drive! Send
       this letter out to as many people you can.......this is a new
       virus and not many people know about it!

       This information was received this morning from IBM, please share
       it with anyone that might access the Internet.   There's the typical hoax claim that this comes from some source of authority (IBM in this case) but this is the old standard Join The Crew Virus hoax which was just a minor ripoff of the original Good Times  virus hoax.  The hoax message then continues:

       Also,

       If anyone receives mail entitled; PENPAL GREETINGS! please delete
       it WITHOUT reading it!!  This is a warning for all Internet users
       - there is a dangerous virus propagating across the Internet
       through an e-mail message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!".

       DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY MESSAGE ENTITLED "PENPAL GREETINGS"!!

       This message appears to be a friendly letter asking you if you
       are interested in a penpal, but by the time you read this letter,
       it is too late. The trojan horse" virus will have already
       infected the boot sector of your hard drive, destroying all of
       the data present. It is a self-replicating virus, and once the
       message is read, it will AUTOMATICALLY forward itself to anyone
       who's e-mail address is present in YOUR mailbox!

       This virus will DESTROY your hard drive, and holds the potential
       to DESTROY the hard drive of anyone whose mail is in your in box,
       and who's mail is in  their in box and so on.  If this virus
       keeps getting passed, it has the potential to do a great deal of
       DAMAGE to computer networks worldwide!!!!

       Please, delete the message entitled "PENPAL GREETINGS!" as soon
       as you see it!  And pass this message along to all of your
       friends, relatives and the other readers of the newsgroups and
       mailing lists which you are on so that they are not hurt by this
       dangerous virus!!!!

       Please pass this along to everyone you know so this can be
       stopped. PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS!!! WARNING !!!

    There is a new virus going around in the last couple of days!!!

    DO NOT open or even look at any mail that you get that says: "Returned
    or Unable to Deliver" This virus will attach itself to your computer
    components and render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items
    that says this. AOL has said this is a very dangerous virus, and there

    is NO remedy for it at this time, Please Be Careful, And forward to
    all your on-line friends A.S.A.P.

    Forward this A.S.A.P. to every single person you know!!!!!!!!!
 There is (yet again!) the usual message to send this (so-called) warning to as many people as possible. (This is a sure-fire indication that this is a hoax.)