Information on Hoax and REAL emailed viruses

Obviously, I cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the contents of this advice, which is given in good faith to help keep the internet "clean and tidy."

I have had computers since 1995 and I have received literally hundreds of emails containing or carrying virusesl. However, my computers have never been adversely affected by any Virus or Trojan Horse, or hacker or other uninvited entity.

WHY? because I installed, use and keep maintained my 'defensive software' - Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Personal Firewall, in the complete package Norton System Works. In the company I worked in for 28 years, they had around 150,000 PCs, and use McAfee Anti-virus. You can (and should) buy and install one of these two world-leading software packages.

Although many of the hoaxes are 'old', they do keep returning.
Before passing on a "Virus Alert" PLEASE FIRST CHECK with

McAfee http://www.mcafee.com
Sophos http://www.sophos.com
Symantec http://www.symantec.com

Better still, sign up for McAfee's or Sophos's emailed updates, or RSS Feeds, then ignore Virus information from any other source.