At 11:30 AM 5/21/99 -0400, you wrote:
>We have just been notified that there is a virus being circulated that can
crash your hard drive. If you receive an e-mail entitled
>"It Takes Guts to Say" - DO NOT OPEN IT - DELETE RIGHT AWAY.
>

John: Once again I am forced to be the conscience of this
group.  This is a new hoax similar to the Good Times hoax.
See below for full details.
Chuck Hafter


From the Computer Virus Myths home page http://kumite.com/myths:


SR News: The "Guts to say 'Jesus'" Hoax


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The "Guts to say 'Jesus'" hoax first appeared late in 1998. It died out for
a while and has now made a huge resurgence. It is currently one of our most
common virus hoaxes.

There is very little that is new in this hoax; it is mostly rehash of prior
hoaxes (see Old Hoaxes Combined.) and this one falls into that category. I
initially hesitated to post a specific warning about this hoax because I
believed that readers of our hoax page would immediately recognize this is
a hoax because it contains so much text stolen from prior hoaxes but sadly
this isn't the case.

Note that only the beginning of this hoax contains some new text. But even
this "new text" fits into the old hoax pattern started by The "Good Times"
Email virus hoax. Where you are warned to avoid a virus by shunning email
with some particular title. It also contains the sure-fire hoax indicator
of asking you to forward this message to others. (If you see a virus
warning like this, you should disregard it.)

Here is the beginning of this hoax:


VIRUS WARNING !!!!!!!
       If you receive an email titled "It Takes Guts to Say 'Jesus,'" DO
       NOT open it.  It will erase everything on your hard drive.
       Forward this letter out to as many people as you can. This is a
       new, very  malicious virus and not many people know about it.
       This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM; please
       share it with everyone that might  access the Internet. Once
       again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your  address book so that
       this may be stopped.

From this point on, the hoax contains text from the old "Undelivered Mail"
hoax:
       Also, do not open or even look at any mail
       that says "RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVER." This  virus will
       attach itself to your computer components and render them
       useless.  Immediately delete any mail items that say this.
Now the hoax tries to claim some legitimacy by referring to AOL:

       AOL has said that this is a very dangerous virus and that there
       is NO remedy for it at  this time. Please practice cautionary
       measures and forward this to all your online friends ASAP.

There is no such thing as a virus with no remedy. And yet again we see the
classic hoax sign; a request to "forward this to all your online friends".
Anytime you see this in an email, you can assume that the message is a hoax!

New Variation:
There is a recent variation on the above hoax that does some further
appeals to authority in an attempt to add legitimacy to the hoax. This
version of the hoax begins:
       I have verified this from an internet hoax verification site.
       This one is real..awareness is everything..

       This one has been verified by GE corp IT group.

Please note that checking with a hoax site (such as the one you are on now)
will show ONLY the most common hoaxes. No site can list every hoax (there
are hundreds of hoaxes that never get wide distribution). The fact that a
hoax is not listed does not mean it's legitimate.
The hoax then continues along the lines of the original version:

       It appears to be real. All Email users, If you receive an email
       titled "It Takes Guts to Say 'Jesus'" DO NOT open it. It will
       erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter out to
       as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus
       and not many people know about it. This information was announced
       yesterday morning from IBM; please share it with everyone that
       might access the Internet. Once again, pass this along to
       EVERYONE in your address book so that this may be stopped. Also,
       do not open or even look at any mail that says "RETURNED OR
       UNABLE TO DELIVER." This virus will attach itself to your
       computer components >> >>>and render them useless. Immediately
       delete any mail items that say this. AOL has said that this is a
       very dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this
       time. Please practice cautionary measures and forward this to all
       your online friends ASAP.