Resignation of Barack Obama virus hoax

Once again a virus hoax is spreading quickly over the internet, forwarded by well-intentioned folk who really should have spent more time researching whether the warning was genuine or not.

The warning tells people to look out for emails which have the subject line “Postcard from Bejing” (sic) or “Resignation of Barack Obama” as the attached file can “burn the whole hard C disc (sic) of your computer”.

Of course, this is nonsense. The warning shares many similarities with other virus hoaxes we have seen in the past including Olympic Torch, Virtual Card for You and Sector Zero.

The typical text of the hoax warning reads as follows:

Subject: FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.