Vista - Got a virus alert on a virus that is over a year old

I recently got disgusted after a friend who, got a virus alert from a friend of his concerning the W32/Zhelatin.gen!eml virus, with the claim that it is a new virus. What a load of bullcookies that was. I looked up this virus on the net, and discovered that the virus is over a year old.

This turned about to be a case of somebody crying wolf, over a virus that is over a year old, and wasn't anything new. This particular virus has many aliases and has been around for over a year and a half.

I ain't stupid to buy in to every virus alert that comes along, and my advice is to look up the virus on the internet and antivirus vendor website to determine if it is a new one or an old one, should people here get a similar message from a friend.

There's too much crying wolf and sending out virus alerts I'm seeing now on the net.

Sit back, take a deep breath and relax. Then forward this email to at least ten of your friends and you will be listed in the Idiots Who Spam directory. If you don't forward this you will be forever listed as having more intellegence than the average person.

You got that right. I'm letting it go.

With all the new stuff hitting. I don't take any of them lightly.

Ummm, what exactly did the email say?

Because I have used AVs in the past that spawned off a reply email when they *received* a virus from someone I knew.

The reference date had nothing to do with when the virus came out - it had to do with a newly discovered infection in stuff coming from the person who sent me the email....

The email was to the following site, which was sent to my friend by somebody else, and that alone is suspect. I looked the virus up, and the virus happens to be right around 2 years old, which means it isn't a new virus contrary to what my friend claimed, from his AV Source, which is Symantec.

snopes.com: 'Postcard from a Family Member' virus

People must think I'm awfully dumb to fall for this.

What alerted me that this smelled fishy, was that it didn't come from a legit antivirus vendor.

Email was to the following site? Umm, I am not sure I understand what you mean by that - are you saying that your email (that you received) was to that link?

The link to the site I posted was in the email, and all my friend could see and say, was that it was legit according to Symantec. For crying out loud, you don't crying wolf over a website, that isn't even a legit security vendor, and over a virus that is close to 2 years old.

I'm not that stupid to see, that my friend is being scammed.

Before you run off thinking that, perhaps you should see why he is saying that - if he got an email telling him he had a virus, or something like that, ask him to forward it to you.

Like I said - *he* may have the virus and someone he sent an attachment to may have auto replied when they received the attachment that he had the virus.