In February 1999, BlueMountain.com - a legitimate greeting card site - was the victim of a virus hoax. However, in 2007, the site link was falsely used to trick people into downloading a trojan. But while the link display read bluemountain.com, the underlying HTML code really pointed to a completely different - and malicious -website. For details, see the article Greeting Card Scam Foists Trojans. Details on the original hoax (circa 1999) appear below.
Some hoaxes seem to deliberately attempt to discredit reputable organizations. The Bluemountain hoax is one such example. In February 1999, an email begin circulating alleging the greeting cards were infected with a virus. An example of the email follows:
For your info:
Just received a call from family. A friend of theirs opened a card from Blue Mountain Cards and system crashed. Do not open Blue Mountain Cards until further notice. Virus has infiltrated their system..pass it on.....
Remember, hoaxes cost companies - and people - time and money. Please do not forward them to others.
