The virus hoax that costs drives

A bizarre email containing a purported virus warning, is terrorising the UK, warning users to delete a Windows back-up file.

The hoax virus, titled SULFNBK, claims a virus will strike on 1 June. It urges users to search their hard drives for a file called SULFNBK.EXE and delete it.

The bogus warning claims that unless the program is removed a virus will delete all data from the user's hard drive.

It arrives in the user's in-box with a subject line VIRUS ALERT, followed by the main body text: "URGENT. A VIRUS could be in your computer files now, dormant, but will become active on 1 June. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS BELOW TO CHECK IF YOU HAVE IT AND REMOVE IT NOW."

Graham Cluley, technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus said even the simplest of hoaxes can have serious consequences and SULFNBK can cause serious damage, he added: "The SULFNBK file consists of Windows long file name back-ups, so if you happened to delete this file it could mean difficulties in restoring any of these back-up files."