The Poolie Bunker

IMPORTANT WARNING
>>
>>Please Be Extremely careful especially if using
>>Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This
>>information arrived this morning direct from both Microsoft
>>and Norton.
>>Please send it to everybody you know who has access to
>>the Internet.
>>You may receive an apparently harmless email with a
>>Power Point presentation "Life is beautiful."
>>If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY
>>CIRCUMSTANCES, and delete it immediately. If you open this
>>file, a message will appear on your screen saying: "It is
>>too late now, your life is no longer beautiful."
>>Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and
>>the
>>person who sent it to you will gain access to your name,
>>e-mail and password.
>>This is a new virus which started to circulate on
>>Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity,
>>and the anti virus software's are not capable of destroying
>>it. The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself
>>"life owner."
>>PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR
>>FRIENDS
>>and ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY
>>

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/life.asp

It's a hoax. Not only that, it's an old hoax....

You won't be the first or last to get taken in, the golden rule is if you get something claiming that it's a virus warning go and check on the net - places like Snopes, McAfee, Symantec and Sophos all record details of hoaxes, so it's usually pretty easy to check if the warning is legit.....

Thanks for that.

Speaking of anti virus software, mine has just expired (norton) and they want £50 to renew my subscription.

Is it worth it, or are there better available?

Depends on how much dodgy stuff you're likely to be getting ;-)

What I tend to use is AVG Free - should be easy to find if you search online. It's a commercial product that they allow you to use for free if you're a home user, although support is minimal to non-existent unless you upgrade. It does go and check for new updates daily though (important these days) and I've not had any bother with it. Don't know how it compares with the likes of Norton, but then again it does the job for me....

I use AVG free version aswell and it's always worked fine for me!!!!

AVG it is then! Cheers men!

Just downloaded this and seems ok.

Thanks.