Consumer advocate: Last year' s worldwide alarm about a computer virus -- a surreptitiously introduced computer program that can destroy other programs and data -- was a fraud. Companies selling programs to protect computers against such viruses raised worldwide concern about the possibility that a destructive virus would be activated on a certain date. There was more smoke than fire, however, only about a thousand cases of damage were reported around the world. Multitudes of antivirus programs were sold
the companies' warning was clearly only an effort to stimulate sales.
overlooks the possibility that the protective steps taken did work and, for many computers, prevented the virus from causing damage