A Darnell researcher wrote: >I admit the "viruses are coming" messages can be annoying, but I'd rather be alerted of a possible problem rather than be caught unawares. Even though I use an anti-virus program, the information I store on my hard drive is important and I take any warning seriously. Personally, I say THANK YOU to the sender, for alerting me to a possible problem. For those who find these messages annoying, hit the delete button. Hi Folks, It's really not that simple. Those of us on email lists seem to stampede easily. It's annoying when someone believes one of the "sky is falling" hoax letters and sends it on to 25 of their closest friends. However, people tend to also send the hoax (and they're all hoaxes) on to all the *mailing lists* they're on. One misguided person, in effect, spams 2-3,000 people at a time. This can have a disasterous effect on the equipment which routes the messages, as all the messages to all the lists come in at the same time. If more than one person is sending the hoax to a bunch of lists, they can bring down the servers and routers. The last big hoax nearly brought down RootsWeb. Brian and Karen, the RootsWeb owners had to work constantly to keep the genuine mail flowing. They don't deserve the grief. A year ago, a spammer did bring down the Maiser lists, some of you might remember that; we were without genealogy lists for several weeks. Good intentions don't count. Here's the site to check the next time somebody yells that the sky is falling: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html "Hoaxes described on this page: PKZ300, Irina, Good Times, Good Times Spoof, Deeyenda, Ghost PENPAL GREETINGS!, Make Money Fast, NaughtyRobot, AOL4FREE, Join the Crew, Death Ray, AOL V4.0 Cookie, A.I.D.S. Hoax, Internet Cleanup Day, Bill Gates Hoax, WIN A HOLIDAY" While you're there, read the page on chain letters - and don't send those on either. If you're going to pass something on, pass on the CIAC web site. Diane Hettrick dhettrick@earthlink.net