Wobbler virus: another hoax

Question: I think I have the Wobbler virus. It came in an e-mail warning me about it. Am I infected? – S.I.

Answer: Let me guess — the message you got read something like this:

For your reference, take necessary precautions. If you receive an email with a file called California, do not open the file – it contains WOBBLER virus.

WARNING

This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM. AOL states that this is a very dangerous virus, much worse than “Melissa”, and that there is NO remedy for it at this time.

This is a hoax. It’s NOT worse than Melissa. IBM didn’t announce it, AOL didn’t say it was “a very dangerous virus” and there is a remedy. Ignore this message. Delete it from your mailbox and never mention it again – it is a menace and a waste of bandwidth.

You did the right thing in investigating it, though.

The author of this message goes on to say you should send it to everyone on your e-mail address list. Please don’t. That’s the point of a virus hoax – to spread it and the associated fear. If the warning message tells you to send it to everyone, it’s likely bogus.

By the way, you can’t get infected by a virus through e-mail unless it comes as part of an attached MS Office document or is embedded in an executable file. The way around not getting infected is to delete any attachments that you aren’t expecting, or to scan them with an up-to-date virus checker before you open them.

More on the Wobbler virus and other hoaxes can be found at Symantec’s virus hoax page. Their Wobbler info page is here.