Virus Hoaxes
The recent Nimda virus outbreak caused a lot of hoaxes to appear. They're not just harmless pranks. They add to the network traffic, waste your time and cause unnecessary anxiety and concerns.

You may be receiving an email warning you that a new, very destructive virus has been discovered by McAfee, Symantec or whatever, and announced on CNN or some other media. It will ask you to send this message to all people you know. Don't do this. Verify that this is actually true before spreading the hoax message.

Some messages will tell you exactly what files to remove from your system to get rid of the virus. This is more than a hoax. The message is a virus in itself because it tells you to delete some vital system files without which your computer will not function properly or you antivirus software will fail to load.
Links
Here are some sites to check to recently discovered viruses and hoaxes:
McAfee hoaxes page
McAfee new wly discovered viruses page
Symantec hoaxes page
Symantec antivirus center (scroll down for recent virus threats)

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