On Tue, 25 Mar 2003 06:06:22 +0000, Alan Gould wrote:

I have received an e-mail today purporting to be from Microsoft Security
Division advising me to download and install their March 2003 Security
Patch. The message in convincingly worded, but it contains some
inconstancies with the usual MS style. I have checked at Widows Updates
on the MS site and that tells me that no critical updates are due for
downloading in my PC. I am assuming that the message is a hoax and that
to download it would cause problems. Can anyone confirm this please?

I've been receiving this hoax/virus/scam/fake two or three times
a week since some time in February. Lately, it's used other
subject lines than "Microsoft Security Patch". It can be
recognized quite easily because the message size is about 203,000
bytes. (There's another such virus that generates messages around
170,000 bytes, and yet another at about 73000 bytes.)

I have no idea just what horrors the attached .exe file commits,
but as I run an antiquated Win3.1 system, I'm immune to it. Those
of you running Win95 or later versions are at great risk.

Beware, beware, beware. Don't be gullible. Don't be a pollyanna.
And don't use Outlook Express!


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada