In the past week I’ve gotten three of them. Honestly, I thought those days were over.

I’m talking about emails from innocent people who are duped by those “send this message to everyone in your address book” virus warnings. That’s so 1998.

The warnings make sense. Recently a virus was released that was the resurrection of a classic “Open this attachment” message. Apparently a boatload of people ignored common sense and the pleadings from their anti-virus programs, and they actually opened the attachment. The results were a surprising increase in infections.

It’s been a long time since a virus has been so successful.

The viruses being described in the recent pseudo-warning messages were active, nasty viruses once upon a time. Due to their age, they’re well-known to the anti-virus software installed on just about every PC. Not only that, the viruses were designed around ancient events.

The “Pass the Torch” message warning I got was about a virus geared toward the 2006 Olympics.

The most hilarious warning I received contained a note that said, “This has been confirmed by snoops.”

Of course, they meant to write snopes.com, which is one of the sites on the Internet that routinely debunks cyber myths and hoaxes.

I once had a section on the Wambooli web site that addressed these fake virus warnings. The problem was endemic 10 years ago: I would get several messages a day warning of do this or don’t do that or you’re computer will explode or whatever.

The main reason so many messages were popular back then is that folks were new to the Internet. They thought they were going to be a big hero, warning everyone else on the Internet about certain peril. The behavior was altruistic, but not appreciated. That’s why I had the section on this web site, as well as a form email letter, I sent to people who spread such warnings.

Despite my efforts, the warnings persisted.

Perhaps the most annoying part is the “send this to everyone in your inbox” element. Especially when some fool does a Reply All to tell the message originator that it’s a hoax. That perpetuates the annoying thing.

Yep those were the days. I pray that they aren’t coming back.