Tonight I received an email warning me of a horrible virus. It was forwarded by a dear friend to whom 47 is a distant memory.
The message that he forwarded IS the "virus." It's a Holiday Bump and it's really very sweet.
Most "viruses" do things to our computers without our consent. We worry that we'll be stripped of confidential information, suffer identity theft, and end our days in misery and want. In order for them to do anything, they must contain executable code which can hi-jack the operating system.
The email is forwarded for no other reason than...to inspire you to forward the email. If you forward the email to everyone in your address book, and each of those people forwards it to everyone they know, traffic could get a little dicey.
Here's another one that I just made up. This email contains a virus that causes your front porch light bulb to go out. The purpose of this virus is to cause everyone who reads it to get up and check their porch light. It does not intend to be forwarded to anyone else, because it is so easy to check that the porch light did not, in fact, go out.
