There
are currently 2 versions of this hoax and they look pretty much
alike. They appeared about the same time in May 1999. Here's what
the first variant looks like:
5-5-99 USA: SPELL-CHECK - AS A COMPUTER VIRUS.
By BOB HIRSCHFELD.
WASHINGTON - A new computer virus is spreading throughout the
Internet, and it is far more insidious than the "Chernobyl"
menace last month. Named Strunkenwhite, after the authors of a
classic guide to good writing, it returns e-mail messages that
have grammatical or spelling errors. It is deadly accurate in
its detection abilities, unlike the spell-checkers that come
with word processing programs.
The virus is causing something akin to panic throughout
corporate America, which has become used to the typos,
misspellings, missing words and mangled syntax so acceptable in
cyberspace.
The CEO of LoseItAll.com, an Internet startup, said the virus
has rendered him helpless. "Each time I tried to send one
particular e-mail this morning, I got back this error message:
'Your dependent clause preceding your independent clause must be
set off by commas, but one must not precede the conjunction.' I
threw my laptop across the room."
A broker at Begg, Barow and Steel speculated that the hacker who
created Strunkenwhite was a "disgruntled English major who
couldn't make it on a trading floor. When you're buying and
selling on margin, I don't think it's anybody's business if I
write that 'i meetinged through the morning, then cinched the
deal on the cel phone while bareling down the xway.' " If
Strunkenwhite makes e-mailing impossible, it could mean the end
to a communication revolution once hailed as a significant
time-saver.
A study of 1,254 office workers in Leonia, New Jersey, found
that e-mail increased employees' productivity by 1.8 hours a day
because they took less time to formulate their thoughts. (The
same study also found that they lost 2.2 hours of productivity
because they were e-mailing so many jokes to their spouses,
parents and stockbrokers.)
Strunkenwhite is particularly difficult to detect because it
does not come as an e-mail attachment. Instead, it is disguised
within the text of an e-mail titled "Congratulations on your pay
raise." The message asks the recipient to "click here to find
out about how your raise effects your pension". The use of
"effects" rather than the grammatically correct "affects"
appears to be an inside joke from Strunkenwhite's mischievous
creator.
The virus has left government e-mail systems in disarray.
Officials at the Office of Management and Budget can no longer
transmit electronic versions of federal regulations because
their highly technical language seems to run afoul of
Strunkenwhite's dictum that "vigorous writing is concise".
The White House speech-writing office reported that it had
received the same message, along with a caution to avoid phrases
such as "the truth is ..." and "in fact ..." Home-computer users
are also reporting snafus, although an e-mailer who used the
word "snafu" said she had come to regret it. The virus can have
an even more devastating impact if it infects an entire network.
A cable news operation was forced to shut down its computer
system for several hours when it discovered that Strunkenwhite
had somehow infiltrated its TelePrompTer software, delaying
newscasts and leaving news anchors nearly tongue-tied as they
wrestled with proper sentence structure. There is concern among
law enforcement officials that Strunkenwhite is a harbinger of
the increasingly sophisticated methods hackers are using to
exploit the vulnerability of business' reliance on computers.
"This is one of the most complex and invasive examples of
computer code we have ever encountered. We just can't imagine
what kind of devious mind would want to tamper with e-mails to
create this burden on communications," said an FBI agent who
insisted on speaking via the telephone out of concern that
trying to e-mail his comments could leave him tied up for hours.
Meanwhile, bookstores and on-line booksellers reported a surge
in orders for Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style".
[The writer, who lampoons the news at his website,
bobsfridge.com, contributed this comment to The Washington
Post.]. (c) 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.
STRAITS TIMES
05/05/1999
The second variant of this hoax is a bit different:
The Moscow Times
Wednesday, May 5, 1999
VIEW FROM AMERICA: Grammar Bug Wages War On Ugly E-mails
By Bob Hirschfeld
Special to The Moscow Times
A new computer virus is spreading throughout the Internet, and
it is far more insidious than las week's Chernobyl menace. Named
Strunkenwhite, after the authors of a classic guide to good
writing, it returns e-mail messages that have grammatical or
spelling errors. It is deadly accurate in its detection
abilities, unlike the spell-checkers that come with
word-processing programs.
The virus is causing something akin to panic throughout
corporate America, which has become used to the typos,
misspellings, missing words and mangled syntax so acceptable in
cyberspace.
The CEO of LoseItAll.com, an Internet startup,said the virus has
rendered him helpless. "Each time I tried to send one particular
e-mail this morning, I got back this error message: 'You
dependent clause preceding your independent clause must be set
off by commas, but one must not precede the conjunction.' I
threw my laptop across the room."
A top executive at a telecommunications and long-distance
company, 10-10-10-10-10-10-123, said: "This morning, the same
damned e-mail kept coming back to me with a pesky notation
claiming I needed to use a pronoun's possessive case before a
gerund. With the number of e-mails I crank out each day, who has
time for proper grammar?"
A broker at Begg, Barow and Steel speculated that the hacker who
created Strunkenwhite was a "disgruntled English major who
couldn't make it on a trading floor. When you're buying and
selling on margin, I don't think it's anybody's business if I
write that 'i meetinged through the morning, then cinched the
deal on the cel phone while bareling down the xway.'"
Strunkenwhite is particularly difficult to detect because it
doesn't come as an e-mail attachment. Instead, it is disguised
within the text of an e-mail titled "Congratulations on your pay
raise." The message asks the recipient to "click here to find
out about how your raise effects your pension." The use of
"effects" rather than the grammatically correct "affects"
appears to be an inside joke from Strunkenwhite's mischievous
creator.
The virus has left government e-mail systems in disarray.
Officials at the Office of Management and Budget can no longer
transmit electronic versions of federal regulations because
their highly technical language seems to run afoul of
Strunkenwhite's dictum that "vigorous writing is concise."
The White House speechwriting office reported that it had
received the same message, along with a caution to avoid phrases
such as "the truth is þ" and "in fact þ." The virus can have an
even more devastating impact if it infects an entire network. A
cable news operation was forced to shut down its computer system
for several hours when i discovered that Strunkenwhite had
somehow infiltrated its TelePrompTer software, delaying
newscasts and leaving news anchors nearly tongue-tied as they
wrestled with proper sentence structure.
Meanwhile, bookstores and online booksellers reported a surge in
orders for Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style."
Bob Hirschfeld, who enjoys receiving e-mails in plain English,
lampoons the news at his web site, bobsfridge.com. He
contributed this comment to The Washington Post.
If you get these messages ignore them and don't pass them on.
*********************************
List
of known hoaxes:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z
Welcome to my hoax section if
you encounter a message about a virus please send to [email protected]
or call me on ICQ#22015420
I
do not spread hoaxes! these pages are simply to inform
other users that they are hoaxes. Please to not spread
hoaxes. Hoax warnings are typically scare alerts started
by malicious people - and passed on by innocent users
who think they are helping the community by spreading
the warning.
Do
not forward hoax messages. There have been cases where
e-mail systems have collapsed after dozens of users forwarded
a false alert to everybody in the company. Corporate users
can get rid of the hoax problem by simply setting a strict
company guideline: End users must not forward virus
alarms. Ever. If such message is received, end users could forward it to the IT department
but not to anyone else.
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