Is this a real virus?

A friend sent me the following email. What's the deal with this:

Sorry to have to send you this email, but I received a
virus which may have been passed on to you. For
directions on eradicating, see below.

Subject virus alert: this seems to be genuine.
A friend's Address Book had been infected by a virus
and it was passed on to my computer. My Address Book, in turn, has been infected. The virus (called jdbgmgr.exe) is not detected by Norton or McAfee anti-virus systems. The virus sits quietly for 14 days before damaging the system. It's sent automatically by messenger and by the Address Book, whether or not you
sent emails to your contacts. Here's how to check for the
virus and how to get rid of it:

1. Go to Start, Find or Search option.
2. In the files/folders option, write the name
jdbgmgr.exe
3. Be sure you search your C: drive and any other
drives you may have.
4. Click "find now "
5.the virus has a teddy bear icon with the name
jdbgmgr.exe DO NOT OPEN IT
6. Go to edit; choose "select all" to highlight the
file without opening
it.

7. Now go to file and select "delete ". It will then go
to the Recycle Bin
8. Go to the Recycle Bin and delete it there as well.

IF YOU FIND THE VIRUS, YOU MUST CONTACT ALL THE PEOPLE
IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK SO THEY CAN ERADICATE IT IN THEIR OWN ADDRESS BOOKS. SORRY ABOUT THIS I'M SURE EVERYONE IN MY ADDRESS BOOK WILL HAVE IT.
To do this open new e-mail message
Click the photo of address book next to "To "
Click every name and add it to CC
Copy this message...enter subject...paste to e-mail...send

 

Hoax.

 

Further to what Brett said. Read here.

If ever in doubt.... do a search at www.hoaxinfo.com


Daizy

 

That kinda adds a degree of harshness to what has usually been only a nuisance prank.

 

JDBGMGR.EXE is the Microsoft Debugger Registrar for Java.

I just did a google search using the file name and got back over 14,000 hits. The first 30 or so I looked at (and probably most of the others) were giving details of the hoax.

My favorite was a Microsoft response Here which pretty much said it all.

 

Thanks for the responses, but Newt i cant read the site that you linked to, i downloaded the japanese text support but it still doesnt read in english?

 

Hiya slk230mb
Don't know a word of Japanese......but at a guess.....I'm pretty sure it's still saying it's a hoax. Have you deleted the file?

Daizy

 

slk230mb - the Japanese Text Support pack enables your compuer to display Japanese characters - it doesn't enable your computer to translate the page.

 

Brett-thats what i thought as well

daizy-when i did the search for the file i right clicked on it and took a look at the version tab and saw what the file was it, so i didnt touch it. I *thought* i might have seen this hoax before but i wanted to be sure and thus this post was born.

 

That's great news slk230mb. Always better to be safe than sorry.

Daizy