A mentor asked me to review a chain-letter virus alert he received from a good friend. The subject line reads “Worst computer virus confirmed by Snopes.”

This particular chain letter traces to a non-expert at Sherwin-Williams. He received it from one of his colleagues at another firm, who received it from… Well, you get the picture. My mentor asked me (in so many words) an obvious question:

"Why should I trust a computer virus alert from a guy who makes paint?"

Come on — would you hire a computer security expert to paint your house? That’s not his field of expertise!

This chain letter warns everyone about a “Postcard from Hallmark” computer virus. The hysterical tone of the email is effective. This chain letter succeeds in spreading for two important reasons — it cites Snopes.com as a source and it gives you a link you can click on to confirm it.

You will find some hoax alerts that claim Snopes.com “verified” it. Always check out a chain letter’s “facts” before you believe it.

Let’s say you work at Sherwin-Williams. A good friend forwards a computer virus alert to you. He/she says Snopes.com confirmed the virus exists. He/she gives you a link to prove it. You click on the link and, sure enough, Snopes.com says “true.” So you forward it to your coworkers & friends as a random act of kindness—

—and then Sherwin-Williams winds up on Vmyths because their employee(s) spread hysterical chain letters.

I wrote back to my mentor with an obvious reply to his obvious question. “If the email actually includes a link to Snopes.com … and if that link actually points to the supposed virus alert … then yeah, it’s true. HOWEVER. You will find some hoax virus alerts out there that claim Snopes.com verified it.” Always check out a chain letter’s “facts” before you believe it.

To say “Sherwin-Williams makes paint” is like saying “the Pope is a Catholic.” It’s a big understatment. Sherwin-Williams makes a lot of different coatings for plastics, metal, and wood in the automotive, aerospace, construction, industrial, and maintenance coating sectors.

“Waitaminit, Rob. You’re a computer security expert. Why are you telling us things about a paint manufacturer?” Thank you for hitting the nail on the head! You realized that’s not my field of expertise…

• By Sean Reiser, 25 November 2008 @ 11:35 am

  Wrote a message debunking on this hoax yesterday as this was posted in the “Manufacturing” section over on linkedin.

  The one thing that did make me chuckle was that the snopes article pretty much debunks every point of hysteria in the message (not the worst.. never on CNN… here’s the article on McAfee for the remedy).

  Although I’m a technologist, I don’t consider myself an expert on viruses. I’m just a critical thinker who knows where to find the information, when necessary. I find it funny that 95% percent of the facts in the message were contradicted in the supporting documentation.

  Keep fighting the good fight, Rob!
• By RyanMeray, 7 December 2008 @ 5:37 pm

  I received this forward from a relative a few days ago. Most of my friends and family are smart enough to have someone vet fantastic email forwards like this one, but most people aren’t so lucky.

  Since I discourage users who can’t spot a spoofed link or unsafe URLs from clicking on links in email forwards, I can cut people slack for not investigating the Snopes link further.

  The irony that the very information which debunks the email is linked from within the email, with no obfuscation, though, is pretty awesome.

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