Simon Ashton must be a famous email hacker by now!
The email says
VERY URGENT – PLEASE READ – NOT A JOKE
IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON ( SIMON25@HOTMAIL.CO.UK ) CONTACTS YOU THROUGH EMAIL DON’T OPEN THE MESSAGE. DELETE IT BECAUSE HE IS A HACKER!!
TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST. HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID COMPUTER ADDRESS, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF YOU DON’T CARE FOR THEM AND FAST BECAUSE IF HE HACKS THEIR EMAIL HE HACKS YOUR MAIL TOO!!!!!…..
Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled ‘Mail Server Report’
If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: ‘It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.’
Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC,
And the person who o sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.
This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the anti virus software’s are not capable of destroying it .
The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself ‘life owner’..
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to
PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY!
Firstly the warning didn’t arrive this morning, from Microsoft and Norton, this email is 15 years old at least! And there is no way that Simon Ashton can hack you from adding you to his list. Its absolute rubbish. If this guy ever even existed he’s probably retired by now! Lol This is just a bogus hacker warning that does nothing but get in the way.
No one knows why this started, some say hackers just did it for a laugh to see how far they could fool people, others say its a great way to gain email addresses, if everyone sends it too everyone in their contacts list. However, its so old now, its probably not being used for anything at all.
Don’t forward on these things, they are annoying pieces of spam. It doesn’t help anyone, if you want to watch out for warnings – bookmark my website!
If you get this email or similar, tell the person that sent it that is it a hoax and direct them to here so they can read for themselves.
I don’t think hackers are particularlly worried about email any more, they are far more busy with our social networking sites.
The only way to gain access to your accounts are via your password – they get this by either just guessing, sending bogus messages so you enter your password (phishing) or via keystroke capturing. Which can also come from bogus messages/links.
Remember never forward or click any links that you are not sure about. Google it first, Google is your friend 
Hope this helps
Photos by Ciccio Pizzettaro c/o Flickr Creative Commons
