On Mon, 25 Aug 1997 19:58:20 -0400, "Howard J. Brown" posted a couple of
hundred lines (mostly headers) including dire warnings about email
messages with the titles "JOIN THE CREW" and "PENPAL GREETINGS!".

Do *NOT* forward this kind of stuff.

Instead refer to http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/
and in particular http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
which begins:

   Internet Hoaxes

   Hoaxes described on this page: PKZ300, Irina, Good Times, Good
   Times Spoof, Deeyenda, Ghost , PENPAL GREETINGS!, Make Money
   Fast, NaughtyRobot, AOL4FREE, Join the Crew

   Last modified: Tuesday, 05-Aug-97 12:12:00 PDT
   You are the 324952nd visitor to this page.

   For information on Internet Chain Letters, check the New CIAC web
   page located at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACChainLetters.html

   The Internet is constantly being flooded with information about
   computer viruses and Trojans. However, interspersed among real
   virus notices are computer virus hoaxes. While these hoaxes do
   not infect systems, they are still time consuming and costly to
   handle. At CIAC, we find that we are spending much more time
   de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus incidents. This page
   describes many of the hoax warnings that are found on the
   Internet today. We will also address some of the history of
   hoaxes on the Internet, how to identify a new hoax warning, how
   to identify a validated warning and what to do if you think a
   message is a hoax.

   Users are requested to please not spread unconfirmed warnings
   about viruses and Trojans. If you receive an unvalidated
   warning, don't pass it to all your friends, pass it to your
   computer security manager to validate first. Validated warnings
   from the incident response teams and antivirus vendors have
   valid return addresses and are usually PGP signed with the
   organization's key.

--
Jeff Woods
[log in to unmask] at Unison Software
[log in to unmask]   at home  [PGP key available here via finger]

"Politics is not a bad profession.  If you succeed there are many rewards;
 if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."  --  Ronald Reagan