“Internet Flower For You” eats hard drives

An internet hoax is claiming that an e-mail titled “An Internet Flower For You” contains a virus that destroys hard drives by eating important little files called dynamic link libraries (DLLs).

Fortunately, this virus does not exist.

Here’s the original e-mail:

Date Collected: April 29, 2001

Intel announced that a new and very destructive virus was discovered recently.
If you receive an email called “An Internet Flower For You”, do
not open it. Delete it right way! This virus
removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll files) from your computer. Your
computer will not be able to boot up.

PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT
LIST!!

This one of a thousand virus hoaxes that claims that opening an e-mail will unleash a virus that will destroy your computer’s hard drive. This one’s a little more technically astute then most — it mentions DLLs, which really do help keep your machine running — but it’s still a hoax.

You can find debunkings here:

  • Symantec debunks it: The virus folks at Symantec (who make Norton Anti-Virus) have debunked this hoax. Read their debunking.
  • McAfee debunks it: Similarly, the virus-hunters at McAffee Anti-Virus also debunked this hoax. Read their debunking.
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