I have the feeling this thing will never die.  Next thing you know it will become a 'boy who cried wolf' thing.  The info below is taken from an email I wrote to the person who forwarded this chain mail on to my mother.  Mom is to the point that she doesn't even ask me about this stuff before checking it out for herself.  That should be true for everyone.  I really do not mind checking this stuff out for you.  I would rather do that, than read all of the email, wall posts, or tweet warnings about some devastating virus that is coming.  The fact is, that a real bad virus, will not give any warning.  By the time you get a "warning" in an email, it is too late.  Check out Google, Snopes, and the various AntiVirus vendors (almost all of them have a "latest virus" list) before you add to the latest chain or hoax.

My Mom was concerned and asked me to look into this.  And in the world of Internet security, this is old and mostly false.  You are more than welcome to send something like this to me to check out, and I will get back to you ASAP.  I have provided links to searches to explain a couple of the terms in the message as well as to two direct page links.

If you are still seeing this one, it is possible that the sender is infected with the virus.  They should do a full virus and spyware scan of their system.  Also it is not really a good idea to forward messages like this as it tends to only perpetuate the life of the malware (malicious software) being distributed.  If you are going to send these out, then make sure to copy the message body only (no attachments and remove the previous recipients) and paste it into notepad first, then copy the text from notepad into a new message.  That will remove any code that may have been embedded into the message.  Then, please make sure to use the BCC for the recipients so you are not sending the mail so everyone can see all the rest of the addresses, for privacy sake (this is good netiquette), as well as not overloading mail servers.  Right now the most common email threats say something about resetting or updating your password or the very popular "if you can't read this message" and most are phishing schemes, the exceptions being for newsletters or shopping sites you have intentionally signed up for.  The links below really are to check on the "POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK" and you will see the most recent dates are pretty far back.  Every good anti-malware provider like AVG, Webroot(SpySweeper), AVAST, and ESET(Nod32), will have an answer to these threats in a matter of only a couple of days, if not hours.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_postcard_virus.htm
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=WOW&rlz=1R1GGGL_en___US314&q=POSTCARD+FROM+HALLMARK+virus&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

The best thing about having an online email provider (like Gmail) and getting the mail online is that they have already scanned the mail for viruses.  If the mail has an attachment that is infected the attachment is deleted or maybe even the whole message.  Most of the time, in the case of Gmail, it will be filtered out as spam and the infected attachment is removed as well.  The easy thing to do is look at the sender and if you do not recognize them, do not open it.  Even if you do recognize the sender, because most viruses in email come from someone you do know, do not open the attachments unless you know in advance they are sending you something.

Because of my work and the amount of email I get, I see stuff like this all the time, most of it is junk or chain mail along with all the other chain mail nonsense like "send this to 5 friends and get...".  Like I said at the beginning, I am more than happy to check this stuff out for you.  If I do find something bad, I can put up a post on my website and you can point your friends to that without sending a chain letter.  Just make sure your computer has good security software, and I am NOT talking about Norton or McAfee (they move "at the speed of smell"), make sure it is up to date, and use good judgment and you should be fine.

Vic

HUGE VIRUS COMING ! PLEASE READ & FORWARD !

Hi All,

 

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!
I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,'regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US