Pokemon

Text of this virus hoax reads as follows:

There is a new virus in the world: "POKEMON" When you got an e-mail with the name "POKEMON" you may not open it because your hard-disk will be deleted automaticly. Please send this away to all your friends in the world.

This hoax is not to be confused with the W32/Pikachu virus.

Many virus hoaxes:

• falsely claim to describe an extremely dangerous virus
• use pseudo-technical language to make impressive-sounding (but impossible) claims
• falsely claim that the report was issued or confirmed by a well-known company
• ask you to forward it to all your friends and colleagues

As usual, you are urged not to pass on warnings of this kind, as the continued re-forwarding of these hoaxes simply wastes time and email bandwidth.

It is possible that you may receive a hoax via email with a file attached. Obviously, such file attachments should be treated with caution as they may be virus infected. Sophos recommends deleting virus hoax emails, whether they contain file attachments or not.

Sophos suggests a policy to help prevent hoaxes from spreading in your company.